Terror in the City of Champions

Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit

Tom Stanton

A New York Times Bestseller
Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Book of the Year Winner in True Crime

Selected as one of “2016’s Great Reads” by NPR
Finalist for the 2016 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year
An unforgettable cauldron of history, crime, race, and sports

Now in paperback comes the critically acclaimed New York Times Bestseller about a championship city haunted by a wave of racist terror. Detroit, mid-1930s was abuzz over its unrivaled sports success when gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group murdered enemies, flogged associates, and planned armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens—even, possibly, a beloved athlete. Award-winning author Tom Stanton has written a stunning tale of history, crime, and sports.

“[A] head-turning tale of the generally forgotten Black Legion terrorist group and Detroit in the 1930s.” —US News & World Report

Globe Pequot / Lyons Press

Pages: 352 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4930-1570-2 • Hardback • June 2016 • $26.00 • (£19.95)

978-1-4930-3058-3 • Paperback • August 2017 • $17.95 • (£13.95)

978-1-4930-1818-5 • eBook • June 2016 • $16.99 • (£12.95)

Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI), Sports & Recreation / General, True Crime / Organized Crime

Terror in the City of Champions

Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

A New York Times Bestseller
Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Book of the Year Winner in True Crime
- Selected as one of “2016’s Great Reads” by NPR
- Finalist for the 2016 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year
- An unforgettable cauldron of history, crime, race, and sports
Now in paperback comes the critically acclaimed New York Times Bestseller about a championship city haunted by a wave of racist terror. Detroit, mid-1930s was abuzz over its unrivaled sports success when gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group murdered enemies, flogged associates, and planned armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens—even, possibly, a beloved athlete. Award-winning author Tom Stanton has written a stunning tale of history, crime, and sports.

“[A] head-turning tale of the generally forgotten Black Legion terrorist group and Detroit in the 1930s.” —US News & World Report

Details

Globe Pequot / Lyons Press

Pages: 352 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4930-1570-2 • Hardback • June 2016 • $26.00 • (£19.95)

978-1-4930-3058-3 • Paperback • August 2017 • $17.95 • (£13.95)

978-1-4930-1818-5 • eBook • June 2016 • $16.99 • (£12.95)

Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI), Sports & Recreation / General, True Crime / Organized Crime

Author

Tom Stanton is the author of several nonfiction books, among them the critically acclaimed memoir The Final Season and the Quill Award finalist Ty and The Babe. A longtime journalist, he teaches at the University of Detroit Mercy. Stanton co-founded and edited the suburban Detroit Voice newspapers, winning state and national press awards, including a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan. He and wife Beth Bagley-Stanton live in New Baltimore, Michigan.

Reviews

[A] head-turning tale of the generally forgotten Black Legion terrorist group and Detroit in the 1930s.
— Us News and World Report

(starred review) A veteran journalist uses a variety of lenses to illuminate the dark story of the Black Legion, an association of murderous (white) domestic terrorists who briefly thrived in the upper Midwest. Stanton unfolds the history of the Legion gradually, always keeping it in the social, cultural, and economic context of the area where it was born and grew…. First-rate reporting and a seminar in how to employ context in investigative and historical journalism.
— Kirkus

“With the racist Black Legion spreading evil and the rambunctious Detroit Tigers bringing joy, Detroit’s seemingly eternal forces of darkness and light coexist in this captivating slice of American history.”
—David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story and When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi
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"Today, Detroit is a shadow of its former self. This fascinating book reveals what an astonishing place it formerly was. Eight decades ago, it was a boiling cauldron of social extremism, extravagant criminality, and athletic excellence. Readers of this book have a new understanding of the city and the Thirties."
—George F. Will
—

(Starred Review) If you’re looking for a book that combines sports, crime, and history in one package, look no further…. For fans of books about baseball, Depression-era American History, and crime nonfiction, this book is a must-read.
— Booklist

Stanton's masterly prose is thoroughly engaging from cover to cover.
— Library Journal

Glittering triumphs cover up a sordid racist conspiracy in this lively vignette…. Swerving between hysterical excitement and hysterical fear, the city embodied the roiling socioeconomic and ideological currents of the 1930s…. a cauldron of racial tensions, police brutality, and strife between management and workers.
— Publishers Weekly