Brian Dunnigan's Frontier Metropolis: Picturing Early Detroit is both a sophisticated study of the Detroit River region between the founding of the French settlement in 1701 and the beginning of the photographic era in 1838 and an outstanding example of just how effectively images can be used in the historical venture. Frontier Metropolis is the product of Brian Dunnigan's thorough search through North American and European collections to find maps and pictures that he then subjected to careful scrutiny within the context of his enviable knowledge of Great Lakes colonial history.

Dunnigan's scholarsip is impeccable. He knows the source literature comprehensively, and describes both topography and biography vividly.... The portrait of the 'Motor City' in adolescence becomes fresh and authoratative in Dunnigan's lively telling...

This is a city most of us know little about, and which we have never seen illustrated, at least not like this. Dunnigan, curator of maps at the William L. Clements library at the University of Michigan, spent five years on this project. What he has produced is anything but another history of early Detroit-though it is a superbly well-written one. The core of this book is a rich, unique and virtually complete visual record of Detroit before the age of photography.-

It's a really nice book on Detroit that people seem to overlook. It weighs 9 pounds and has 250 pages of reprinted old maps, portraits of founders of the city and stunning historical writing. It's an organic, wonderful picture book-bigger than most and nicer than most art books. The reproductions are really nice and crisp, and it has material that you're never going to see again."

This is the magnum opus of Detroit's anniversary year... The book is a work of art and a scholar's delight... a must for anyone interested in Detroit history.

These pictures and maps are tantalizing windows into the past of this colonial metropolis during its French, British, and early American periods. Frontier Metropolis illustrates and describes all known images of Detroit from its founding in 1707 until 1838 to provide a nearly complete visual chronology made by people who knew the city. Presented in a handsome, large-format design, illustrated in full color, Frontier Metropolis is a unique and captivating look at the city's rich and colorful heritage.

It is hard to imagine anyone who loves books describing this beautiful volume as anything less than a treasure. In particular, those readers with an interest in maps or the Great Lakes region in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, let alone Detroit, will find it irresistible.