T

he era of 1930s Detroit was a peri-
od of extreme upheaval. The Great 
Depression, the worst economic 
disaster in American history, reigned for 
the entire decade. Heavily dependent upon 
automobile manufacturing, 
Detroit felt the ravages of the 
Depression more deeply than 
any other major city. 
Severe economic distress, 
however, was just one of 
many serious issues facing 
Detroiters: there were also 
dangerous threats from crime 
and racketeering; civic corruption; white 
supremacy movements; rampant antisemi-
tism and racial prejudice; and pitched battles 
between corporate powers and labor orga-
nizations. As the title of Donald Levin’s new 
novel suggests, Detroit was a Savage City.
Recently released, Savage City is a histor-
ical novel about Detroit during the Great 
Depression. Best known for his seven Martin 
Preuss mysteries, Levin takes a deep dive 
into the noir side of the city by focusing on 
the lives of four main characters during a 
critical week in 1932 and a pivotal event: the 
Ford Hunger March.

The novel begins with Clarence Brown, a 
migrant from the American South and one 
of only a few Black police officers in Detroit. 
He is also a detective, which makes him an 
even rarer commodity on the force. Brown 
is an honorable man who faces racial prej-
udice and slights every day of his working 
life, both from within the police department 
and without. In his part of the story, Brown 
faces many obstacles while trying to solve 
the lynching of an African American man 
that most of police force is willing to falsely 
declare a suicide.
Prohibition is still in effect and the distri-
bution of illegal booze is a profitable enter-
prise in 1932. Although its power was on the 
wane, the most famous set of Detroit racke-
teers was the Purple Gang. Its founders and 
leaders were young Jewish men. Another of 
Levin’s characters, Ben Rubin, is a petty thief 
who dreams of joining the gang, but instead, 
becomes a target of the “Purples.
” Rubin is 
not a bad guy, but he sees crime as a career 
path out of poverty until he meets Elizabeth 
Waters.
The scale of poverty in the United States 
during the Depression was unprecedented 
and the federal government did not seem 

to have any solutions to the problem. To 
many, it also seemed uncaring. As a result, 
many citizens began to consider alternative 
political ideologies such as communism, 
socialism and other “isms.
” Elizabeth Waters 
is just such a person. Renouncing the 
security of her Grosse Pointe upbringing, 
Waters supports the communist-initiated 
Unemployment Councils. She’s a free spirit, 
an idealist, but after participating in the 
Hunger March, Waters finds herself jailed 
and abused by cops. Ben Rubin is also a vic-
tim of the Hunger March, and a bond devel-
ops between them.
The Ford Hunger March was an actual 
event that occurred on March 7, 1932. In 
protest over the lack of jobs, unemployed 
workers marched from the western Detroit 
border to Ford Motor Company’s giant River 
Rouge Industrial complex in Dearborn. 
There, they were met by police, Ford Service 
Department thugs led by Ford’s famous 
thug-in-chief, Harry Bennett, and by bullets. 
At the end of the clash, four marchers were 
dead (one died a few days later) and dozens 
were beaten and injured. Levin uses the 
Hunger March as a backdrop.
Finally, there is Roscoe Grissom. Grissom 

48 | MARCH 17 • 2022 

Savage City, by Donald Levin (Poison Toe Press: Ferndale), 2021

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW

