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Michigan: A History (States and the Nation)
Michigan A History - States and the Nation Author:Bruce Catton The late Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Bruce Catton is known to millions of readers for his absorbing works on the Civil War. In this book, he turns to his native Michigan to tell a story of what happened when a primitive wilderness changed into a bustling industrial center so fast that it was as if the old French explorer Etienne Brule "... more »;should step up to shake hands with Henry Ford."
"Michigan, where the age of the automobile came to its fullest flowering," writes Mr. Catton, "is a state that grew up in the belief that abundance is forever." Michigan's abundance of furs brought the early trappers and traders. An abundance of forests drew lumberjacks who reduced pines to stumps and sawdust. The state held an abundance of iron ore and copper and developed new means to move men and goods at an ever faster pace. Finally, there was the abundance of technology itself, producing "a faith," Mr. Catton observes, "not in goodness of God but in the endless ingenuity of man."
The idea that abundance was "inexhaustible -- that fatal Michigan word," as the author calls it -- dominated thinking about the state from the days when Commandant Cadillac's soldiers arrived at Detroit until his name became a brand of car. Viewed in this light, Michigan is a case study of all America, and Americans in any state will be fascinated. In a colorful, dramatic past, Mr. Catton finds understanding of where we are in the present and what the future will make us face.« less