Extract

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR

Summer of Rage

“Summer of Rage beautifully chronicles the civil disorders/riots (residents, scholars, and leaders still cannot agree on the correct term) in Detroit and Newark in the summer of 1967, a summer that would come to define the urban uprisings throughout the country and were symbols of racial inequality and decay in the nation’s cities.

“Max Arthur Herman uses archival materials and in-depth interviews with eye witnesses, police and national guardsmen, and civil rights leaders to paint a vivid picture of the events and their long term effects on both cities from 1967 to the present, when both cities continue to struggle with many of the same problems that led to the summer of rage. Although Newark has witnessed some improvements, especially in its downtown, the Central Ward where the disorders occurred, for example, is still poor, segregated, and continues to have housing, crime, and educational problems. Detroit suffers from dire economic and educational problems and remains one of the most segregated cities in the country.

“Using insightful sociological analyses, Herman provides an important understanding of the events and how they shaped the next 45 years and the collective identities of both cities. Herman’s portrait of a city still haunted by the past as it struggles to move forward rings especially true.”