Although historians have devoted a great deal of attention to the development of federal government policy regarding civil rights in the quarter century following World War II, little attention has been paid to the equally important developments at the state level. Few states underwent a more dramatic transformation with regard to civil rights than Michigan did. In 1948, the Michigan Committee on Civil Rights characterized the state of civil rights in Michigan as presenting "an ugly picture". Twenty years later. Michigan was a leader among the states in civil rights legislation. Expanding the Frontiers of Civil Rights documents this important shift in state level policy and makes clear that civil rights in Michigan embraced not only blacks but women, the elderly, native Americans, migrant workers, and the physically handicapped. Sidney Fine's treatment of civil rights in Michigan is based on an exhaustive examination of unpublished, published, and interview sources. Fine relates civil rights developments in Michigan to civil rights actions by the federal government and other states. He focuses on the administrations of the three governors -- Democrats G. Mennen Williams (1949-1960), and John B. Swainson (1961-1962), and Republican George Romney (1963-1969) -- and the roles they played in furthering civil rights in Michigan, as well as other politicians and policymakers. Students of state history, civil rights history, and those interested in post-World War II history will find few accounts as broad ranging as this study of state civil rights legislation during the years the book covers.

Readers interested in Michigan history, sociology, and Asian American studies will enjoy this volume.

From tales of pirate treasure to Jimmy Hoffa’s mysterious disappearance, Michigan Myths and Legends makes history fun and pulls back the curtain on some of the state’s most fascinating and compelling stories. Most people have heard about the Bermuda Triangle, where ships and people disappear without a trace—but few have heard about the equally deadly Great Lakes Triangle, where one-third of all unsolved sea and air disasters in America take place. Night after night, curious onlookers congregate on a remote hill near the Michigan/Wisconsin border to watch for mysterious lights that rise out of the ground, hover, and then disappear. Are the orbs merely optical phenomena created by headlights of passing cars? Or are they spirits returning to haunt where their earthly bodies met their demise? In the mid-1960s, the number of reports to the US Air Force of UFO sightings spiked across the country. Were people seeing unfamiliar technological innovations in aircraft? Had the rising popularity of the new-fangled television’s sci-fi programs sparked Americans’ imaginations? Or were extraterrestrial beings actually responding to signals from newly constructed deep-space radio transmitters?

The first biography of William W. Cook, the man who made possible the Michigan Law Quadrangle

Explores what brevity can teach us about the powers and limits of theater