Altogether, the issues that we see in Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story, are important in the context of American history. It sets up the stage for the decades following the sixties in most American cities. David Maraniss excels at explain the social issues present in Detroit at this time. He mentions the struggles between the community and the people there to protect them, the police. His first hand accounts of how the city changed since his childhood, dive home the impact of deindustrialization and white flight on those who once saw the city as great and powerful.
