Michigan’s dramatic landscape includes roaring waterfalls, the country’s tallest sand dunes, vast virgin pine forests, soft rolling countryside, and miles of sandy beaches—and its history is as varied and interesting. Poremba approaches the state’s history from many angles: the stories of the peoples who have made Michigan home, from Native Americans to French explorers, European immigrants, and African Americans; the rise of its industries, including mining, lumber, tobacco, and automotive; the intricacies of its politics, from the Civil War, to the civil rights movement, to the recent election of Michigan’s first woman governor. Poremba’s Michigan is a concise account of the forces that have made Michigan the state it is today.