Sugrue argues that the decline of Detroit began long before the 1967 race riot.

Sugrue argues that institutionalized and often legalized racism resulted in sharply limited opportunities for African Americans in Detroit for most of the 20th century.

He also argues that the process of deindustrialization, the flight of investment and jobs from the city, began in the 1950s as employers moved to suburban areas and small towns and also introduced new labor-saving technologies.

The book has won multiple awards including a Bancroft Prize in 1998.

In 2014, Princeton published a new edition of the book, with a new preface discussing Detroit's bankruptcy.