As the story surrounding Flint’s lead-in-water crisis has developed, Assistant Professor Andrew Highsmith has been a valuable resource to journalists, scholars and activists covering the issue.
His latest book, Demolition Means Progress: Flint, Michigan, and the Fate of the American Metropolis (University of Chicago Press, 2015), explores the spatial and structural barriers to racial equality and economic opportunity in metropolitan Flint from the early twentieth century to the present. An in-depth case study of the political economy of racial and economic inequality in modern America, Demolition explains how the perennial quest for urban renewal—even more than white flight, corporate abandonment, and other forces—contributed to mass suburbanization, racial and economic division, deindustrialization, and political fragmentation.
His current book project, Toxic Metropolis: Cities, Suburbs, and the Battle over Public Health in Modern America, is a wide-ranging, national and transnational study focusing on how the spatial reorganization of urban centers and the growth of mass consumption during the twentieth century affected both public health outcomes and the political economy of wellness in the United States. At its core, the project seeks to situate social and political struggles over health and wellness at the center of the modern American experience.
Professor Highsmith has written about Flint, and been featured in stories on Flint, in the following media outlets:
WDET, Feb. 10, 2016 (Audio)
Highsmith: Flint Crisis a Long Time Coming and Could Have Been Prevented
Michigan Radio, Feb. 8, 2016
Flint's struggles began with GM's move to suburbs in 1940s, historian says (Audio)
Think Progress, Feb. 3, 2016
How racism and anti-tax fervor laid the groundwork for Flint’s water crisis
Los Angeles Times, Jan. 29, 2016
Flint's toxic water crisis was 50 years in the making (Op-ed)
Deutsche Welle, Jan. 22, 2016
How austerity poisoned the people of Flint, Michigan
FOX11 News, Jan. 21, 2016
Experts: Flint could be 'canary in coal mine' for nationwide challenges
In These Times, July 27, 2015
In Flint, Michigan, the Wrecking Ball Has Not Meant Progress
Forthcoming - NPR’s “All things considered”
You can follow Dr. Highsmith on Twitter via @ARHighsmith