Description

Despite its inland location, Detroit's origins as a French outpost make it older than many other cities of the eastern United States. Frontier Metropolis illustrates and describes all known images of Detroit in the pre-photographic era to provide a nearly complete visual chronology made by people who knew the city.

Brian Leigh Dunnigan has arranged these maps, plans, and views to show the evolution of Detroit and its community life over its first 137 years. Chapter introductions review issues faced by Detroit residents during the years covered, while text accompanying the images places them in their historical context and adds the descriptive words of people from the past. No other book so vividly depicts Detroit's growth from struggling agricultural community and trading post to industrial giant.

Presented in a handsome, large-format design and illustrated in full color, Frontier Metropolis is a unique and captivating look at the city's rich and diverse heritage.

Published by Wayne State University Press

Author(s)

Other Books by Brian Leigh Dunnigan: A Picturesque Situation: Mackinac before Photography, 1615-1860,

Reviews

This is the magnum opus of Detroit's anniversary year... The book is a work of art and a scholar's delight... a must for anyone interested in Detroit history.

— Bill McGraw, Detroit Free Press

Dunnigan's scholarsip is impeccable. He knows the source literature comprehensively, and describes both topography and biography vividly.... The portrait of the 'Motor City' in adolescence becomes fresh and authoratative in Dunnigan's lively telling...

— Nicholas Westbrook, Executive Director, Fort Ticonderog

“It’s a really nice book on Detroit that people seem to overlook. It weighs 9 pounds and has 250 pages of reprinted old maps, portraits of founders of the city and stunning historical writing. It’s an organic, wonderful picture book—bigger than most and nicer than most art books. The reproductions are really nice and crisp, and it has material that you’re never going to see again.”

— Metrotimes

"It is hard to imagine anyone who loves books describing this beautiful volume as anything less than a treasure. In particular, those readers with an interest in maps or the Great Lakes region in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, let alone Detroit, will find it irresistible."

— The Michigan Historical Review