Great Reads: 50 Essential Works of Michigan History

The following list of 50 essential works of Michigan history was selected by a team of noted historians assembled by the Department of History, Arts and Libraries and Randy Riley, Special Collections Manager for the Library of Michigan.

The list is in alphabetical order by author. A few titles are marked with a blue square( ), indicating they are not owned by this Library, but may be requested as an Interlibrary Loan.

• Armour, David A. and Keith R.Widder. At the Crossroads: Michilimackinac During the American Revolution. (977.48 A)
  
  
•  Bogue, Margaret Beattie. Fishing the Great Lakes: An Environmental History, 1783-1933 (333.95 B)
  
  
• Brehm, Victoria, ed. The Women's Great Lakes Reader (977.03 W)
  
  
• Buley, R. Carlyle. The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period, 1815-1840. (977 B)

•  Carson, Gerald. Cornflake Crusade.
  
  
• Catton, Bruce. Waiting for the Morning Train: An American Boyhood. (Biography / Catton)
  
  
• Cleland, Charles E. Rites of Conquest: The History and Culture of Michigan's Native Americans. (977.4004 C)
  
  
• Clifton, James A., George L. Cornell, and James M. McClurken. People of the Three Fires: The Ottawa, Potawatomi and Ojibway of Michigan.(Main Library Heritage Room: 977.4 C)
  
  
• Clive, Alan. State of War: Michigan in World War II. (977.404 C )

• Darden, Joe T. Detroit, Race and Uneven Development. Main Library Heritage Room Reference 305. 8—(does not circulate)
  
  
• Dunbar, Willis F. All Aboard! A History of Railroads in Michigan. (385 D)
  
  
• Dunbar, Willis F. and George S. May. Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State. (977.4 D)
  
  
• Dunnigan, Brian Leigh. Frontier Metropolis: Picturing Early Detroit, 1701-1838. (Oversize: 977.434 D)
  
  
• Eckert, Kathryn Bishop. Buildings of Michigan. (720 E)

• Fine, Sidney. Expanding The Frontiers of Civil Rights: Michigan, 1948–1968. (342.774 F)
  
  
• Fine, Sidney. Frank Murphy. (Biography / Murphy)
  
  
• Fine, Sidney. Sit-down: The General Motors Strike of 1936–1937. (331.89 F)
  
  
• Fine, Sidney. Violence in the Model City: The Cavanagh Administration, Race Relations, and the Detroit Riot of 1967. (305.896 F)
  
  
•  Formisano, Ronald P. The Birth of Mass Political Parties in Michigan, 1827–1861.

• Gilpin, Alec R. The Territory of Michigan, 1805–1837. (977.403 G)
  
  
• Gilpin, Alec R. The War of 1812 in the Old Northwest. (973.5231 G)
  
  
•  Gray, Susan E. The Yankee West: Community Life on the Michigan Frontier.
  
  
• Halsey, John, ed. and Michael Stafford, assoc. ed. Retrieving Michigan's Buried Past: The Archeology of the Great Lakes State. (Main Library Heritage Room Reference 977.4 R)—(does not circulate)
  
  
• Holli, Melvin G. Reform in Detroit: Hazen S. Pingree and Urban Politics. (Main Library Heritage Room Reference 977.4 34 H)—(does not circulate)
  
  
•  Hyde, Charles K., and colored photographs by Ann and John Mahan. The Northern Lights: Lighthouses of the Upper Great Lakes. (387.155 H)

• Jager, Ronald. Eighty Acres: Elegy for a Family Farm. (977.466 J)
  
  
•  Karamanski, Theodore J. Deep Woods Frontier: A History of Logging in Northern Michigan.
  
  
• Katzman, David M. Before the Ghetto: Black Detroit in the Nineteenth Century. (977.434 K)
  
  
• Kestenbaum, Justin L., ed. The Making of Michigan, 1820–1860: A Pioneer Anthology. (977.403 M )
  
  
• Kilar, Jeremy W. Michigan's Lumbertowns: Lumbermen and Laborers in Saginaw, Bay City, and Muskegon, 1870–1905. (330.9774 K )
  
  
• Klunder, Willard Carl. Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation. (977.403 K)

• Lankton, Larry D. Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines. (338.762 L)
  
  
• Lewis, David L. The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company. (Biography / Ford)
  
  
• Lichtenstein, Nelson. The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor. (Biography / Reuther)
  
  
• Mason, Philip P. Rumrunning and the Roaring Twenties: Prohibition on the Michigan-Ontario Waterway. (364.133 M)
  
  
• May, George S. A Most Unique Machine: The Michigan Origins of the American Automobile Industry. (338.47 M)

•  Nevins, Allan and Frank E. Hill. Ford.
  
  
• Peckham, Howard H. Pontiac and the Indian Uprising. (973.27 P)
  
  
• Romig, Walter. Michigan Place Names: The History of the Founding and the Naming of More Than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities. (917.74 R)
  
  
• Sugrue, Thomas J. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. (305.8 S)
  
  
• Tanner, Helen Hornbeck, ed. Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History. (977 A)
  
  
• Thomas, Richard W. Life for Us Is What We Make It: Building Black Community in Detroit, 1915–1945. (977.4 T)
  
  
• Thompson, Mark L. Steamboats and Sailors of the Great Lakes. (386.224 T)
  
  
• Thurner, Arthur W. Strangers and Sojourners: A History of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. (Strangers and sojourners : a history of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula (977.499 T)

• Vander Hill, C. Warren. Settling the Great Lakes Frontier: Immigration to Michigan, 1837–1924. (325.774 V)
  
  
• Vinyard, JoEllen McNergney. For Faith and Fortune: The Education of Catholic Immigrants in Detroit, 1805–1925. (371.829 V)
  
  
• Weeks, George. Stewards of the State: The Governors of Michigan. (Main Reef.: 353.977 W)
  
  
• White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. (977.004 W)
  
  
• Woodford, Arthur M. This Is Detroit, 1701–2001. (977.004 W)
  
  
• Zunz, Olivier. The Changing Face of Inequality. (307.764 Z)