Contributor(s): G. Asenath Andrews, Stuart Gulliver, Bruce Katz, Richard Sennett | Detroit was once America's fourth largest city. Built by the car, with its groundbreaking suburbs, freeways and shopping centres, it was the embodiment of the American dream. With its intense race riots that brought the Army into the city, and violent union struggles against the fierce resistance of Henry Ford and the Big Three, it was also the scene of American 'nightmares'.