The Detroit Model: Manufacturing American Men and Women in the Industrial City

As Detroit reached dizzying new heights of industrial success and urban growth at the turn of the twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of migrants flocked to the Motor City. In response, organizations such as the YMCA and Ford Motor Company launched wide-reaching Americanization programs to instill patriotism, conservative gender roles, traditional family values, and industry-favorable labor relations in the city’s immigrant communities. As the “Ford Man” became a model for masculinity ...