But life can be luminescent when it is most vulnerable.

MARANISS: (Reading) It was a time of uncommon possibility and freedom, when Detroit created wondrous and lasting things. GREENE: Yeah, and you kind of capture that in a paragraph from the very beginning of the book that I'd love you to read here, if you don't mind. And yet you could see some of the shadows of Detroit's demise coming. MARANISS: It seemed that I could tell the whole story pretty powerfully in those 18 months between October of '62 and the spring of '64 when they were all at their peak. His book, 'Once In A Great City,' examines four subjects - cars, the labor movement, civil rights and Motown - all at a very specific point in the early 1960s. GREENE: And David Maraniss ended up writing a history of what Detroit gave America. But it struck me in a deep, deep way and got me thinking about I want to write about the city where I was born. MARANISS: Now, of course, they were just selling Chryslers. And he turns to the camera and says.ĮMINEM: This is the Motor City. And he walks into the Fox Theatre and a black gospel choir is rising in song. MARANISS: You know, I'm too old to be an Eminem guy, but I love the back beat of that song. And we're certainly no one's Emerald City. But this isn't New York City or the Windy City or Sin City. And that commercial he's talking about - that's rapper Eminem cruising in a black Chrysler through the iconic streets of downtown Detroit.

GREENE: And while David Maraniss grew up mostly in Packer country, Wis., Detroit is his hometown. MARANISS: Yes, but - looked up at the screen and saw a commercial that had a freeway sign that said Detroit. GREENE: Playing my Steelers and beating them, by the way. I was watching the 2011 Super Bowl with my Packers playing in it. But there was a Super Bowl commercial that really is the starting point for this book.ĭAVID MARANISS: It's an odd thing, but yes. You know, I don't imagine many works of history have their origins in a television commercial. When we sat down to talk, I asked David Maraniss about his inspiration. He's also written several books of nonfiction, and his latest features an unlikely main character - a city, a great city, that has come to symbolize hard times. David Maraniss won a Pulitzer Prize writing about politics.

Once In A Great City by David Maraniss