Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Independent Man: The Life of Senator James Couzens | 1958 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 2 | The Detroit Riot of 1967 | 1969 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 3 | Detroit: City of Race and Class Violence | 1972 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 4 | Waiting for the Morning Train | 1972 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 5 | Call It North Country | 1986 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 6 | Danny and the Boys: Being Some Legends of Hungry Hollow | 1987 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 7 | Michigan Voices: Our State’s History in the Words of the People Who Lived It | 1987 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 8 | Seasons of Grace: A History of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit | 1990 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 9 | Cobb Would Have Caught It: The Golden Age of Baseball in Detroit | 1991 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 10 | John Jacob Astor: Business and Finance in the Early Republic | 1991 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 11 | Queen of the Lakes | 1994 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 12 | Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars: The Negro Leagues in Detroit, 1919-1933 | 1994 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 13 | The Northern Lights: Lighthouses of the Upper Great Lakes | 1994 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 14 | Redevelopment and Race: Planning a Finer City in Postwar Detroit | 1997 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 15 | The Long Winter Ends | 1998 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 16 | All-American Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement | 1998 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 17 | Toast of the Town: The Life and Times of Sunnie Wilson | 1998 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 18 | Father Abraham’s Children: Michigan Episodes in the Civil War | 1998 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 19 | Huron: The Seasons of a Great Lake | 1999 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 20 | A Sailor’s Logbook: A Season Aboard Great Lakes Freighters | 1999 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 21 | “Expanding the Frontiers of Civil Rights”: Michigan, 1948-1968 | 2000 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 22 | Graveyard of the Lakes | 2000 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 23 | Great Lakes Journey: A New Look at America’s Freshwater Coast | 2000 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 24 | History of the Finns in Michigan | 2001 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 25 | Uppermost Canada: The Western District and the Detroit Frontier, 1800-1850 | 2002 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 26 | Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors | 2002 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 27 | Michigan’s Early Military Forces: A Roster and History of Troops Activated Prior to the American Civil War | 2003 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 28 | Riding the Roller Coaster: A History of the Chrysler Corporation | 2003 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 29 | The French Canadians of Michigan: Their Contribution to the Development of the Saginaw Valley and the Keweenaw Peninsula, 1840-1914 | 2003 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 30 | Beyond the Windswept Dunes: The Story of Maritime Michigan | 2003 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 31 | A Hanging in Detroit: Stephen Gifford Simmons and the Last Execution under Michigan Law | 2003 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 32 | Roy D. Chapin: The Man Behind the Hudson Motor Car Company | 2003 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 33 | Angels in the Architecture: A Photographic Elegy to an American Asylum | 2004 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 34 | Pulling Down the Barn: Memories of a Rural Childhood | 2004 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 35 | To Keep the South Manitou Light | 2004 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 36 | “I Hope to Do My Country Service” : The Civil War Letters of John Bennitt, M.D., Surgeon, 19th Michigan Infantry | 2005 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 37 | The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy | 2005 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 38 | Songquest: The Journals of Great Lakes Folklorist Ivan H. Walton | 2005 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 39 | Under Michigan: The Story of Michigan’s Rocks and Fossils | 2005 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 40 | My Forty Years With Ford | 2006 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 41 | House of Fields: Memories of a Rural Education | 2006 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 42 | A Pocketful of Passage | 2007 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 43 | Detroit on Stage: The Players Club, 1910-2005 | 2007 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 44 | A Badger Boy in Blue: The Letters of Chauncey H. Cooke | 2007 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 45 | Life with Mae: A Detroit Family Memoir | 2007 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 46 | When You Come Home: A Wartime Courtship in Letters 1941-45 | 2007 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 47 | Who’s Jim Hines? | 2008 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 48 | Storied Independent Automakers: Nash, Hudson, and American Motors | 2009 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 49 | Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation | 2009 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 50 | The Color of Law: Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights | 2010 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 51 | Monopoly on Wheels: Henry Ford and the Selden Automobile Patent | 2011 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 52 | Iron Will: Cleveland-Cliffs and the Mining of Iron Ore, 1847-2006 | 2011 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 53 | The Fall and Recapture of Detroit in the War of 1812: In Defense of William Hull | 2011 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 54 | Lake Superior Profiles : People on the Big Lake | 2012 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 55 | The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan: People, Law, and Politics | 2012 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 56 | Among the Enemy: A Michigan Soldier’s Civil War Journal | 2013 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 57 | The Political Activities of Detroit Clubwomen in the 1920s: A Challenge and a Promise | 2013 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 58 | The Colored Car | 2013 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 59 | Arsenal of Democracy: The American Automobile Industry in World War II | 2013 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 60 | “Old Slow Town”: Detroit during the Civil War | 2013 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 61 | Great Girls in Michigan History | 2015 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 62 | Race, Religion, and the Pulpit: Rev. Robert L. Bradby and the Making of Urban Detroit | 2015 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 63 | Young Henry Ford: A Picture History of the First Forty Years | 2015 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 64 | Justus S. Stearns: Michigan Pine King and Kentucky Coal Baron, 1845-1933 | 2015 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 65 | A Beaver Tale: The Castors of Conners Creek | 2016 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 66 | Lake Invaders: Invasive Species and the Battle for the Future of the Great Lakes | 2016 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 67 | Designing Detroit: Wirt Rowland and the Rise of Modern American Architecture | 2017 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 68 | To the Copper Country: Mihaela’s Journey | 2017 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 69 | Roads to Prosperity: Economic Development Lessons from Midsize Canadian Cities | 2017 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 70 | Survival and Regeneration: Detroit’s American Indian Community | 2017 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 71 | Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company | 2018 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 72 | Bold Boys in Michigan History | 2018 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 73 | John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age | 2018 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 74 | Rosie, A Detroit Herstory | 2018 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 75 | Greening the Black Urban Regime: The Culture and Commerce of Sustainability in Detroit | 2020 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 76 | What the Chickadee Knows | 2020 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 77 | A Lincoln Legacy: The History of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan | 2020 | Robert Traver | Buy |
| 78 | I Hope This Reaches You: An American Soldier’s Account of World War I | 2020 | Robert Traver | Buy |
The Great Lakes series is an extensive collection of non-fiction works about the history and culture of the Great Lakes region, particularly Michigan and Detroit. With 78 books published between 1958 and 2020, the series covers everything from the automotive industry and labor history to lighthouses, shipwrecks, and Civil War-era Michigan.
Many of the titles focus on Detroit’s history, including its auto industry, civil rights struggles, and cultural life. Others explore maritime topics, Upper Peninsula communities, and Michigan’s natural landscape. The series is a major resource for anyone interested in the region.