Why read Manufacturing Decline?

Book cover of Manufacturing Decline: How Racism and the Conservative Movement Crush the American Rust Belt

Book description

For decades, the distressed cities of the Rust Belt have been symbols of deindustrialization and postindustrial decay, their troubles cast as the inevitable outcome of economic change. The debate about why the fortunes of cities such as Detroit have fallen looms large over questions of social policy. In Manufacturing Decline,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Manufacturing Decline as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Kevin H. Wozniak

Author

Manufacturing Decline educated me about the reasons why the steady loss of jobs, infrastructure, and population from Rust Belt cities in the latter half of the twentieth century was not a natural, unavoidable consequence of changes in the economy.

Hackworth tells a compelling history of the ways that Republican-controlled state legislatures enacted a variety of zoning, tax, and spending policies that facilitated the flow of resources out of cities (disproportionately populated by African Americans and Latinos) toward suburbs (disproportionately populated by White Americans).

The book includes a number of shocking quotes from Republican political advisors who admitted later in life…

From Kevin's list on The best books about racism and the politics of public investment.