Great Lakes books in order

The Great Lakes series covers the history, culture, and people of Michigan and the Great Lakes region through dozens of volumes by various authors.

Reading order

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

This collection brings together dozens of books about the Great Lakes region, particularly Michigan. Subjects range from the Detroit auto industry and labor history to Great Lakes shipping, Civil War letters, and the natural history of the lakes themselves.

Bruce Catton’s own Michigan-focused works appear alongside those of many other regional historians. The series covers everything from lighthouses and lake freighters to racial conflict in Detroit and the fur trade era. It is a comprehensive library of Great Lakes regional history.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books are in the Great Lakes series?

There are 78 books in the Great Lakes series, published between 1958 and 2020.

What is the first book in the Great Lakes series?

The first book in the Great Lakes series is Independent Man: The Life of Senator James Couzens, published in 1958.

Are all the Great Lakes books by Bruce Catton?

No. This is a regional publishing imprint that includes work by many authors. Catton’s own contributions are alongside books by other historians covering Michigan and Great Lakes subjects.

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