Lisa Fine

Protecting communities and nature in an industrial region. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, communities in the Downriver region of the Detroit River have forged an enduring claim to the wellbeing of waterways that are central to where they live, work, and play. Lisa M. Fine examines important moments in the ongoing efforts of the area's citizens to create a humane and habitable environment. Her analysis shows how people preserved wetlands and the river by working through sportsmen's organizations, appealing to state agencies, and forming grassroots movements. Fueled by enduring connections to place, local unions fought a proposed nuclear power plant in the 1950s. Years later, steel workers facing the steamroller of deindustrialization tried to preserve their communities by purchasing their own company. The ties that bind gave a unique character to activism in the Downriver region, challenging stereotypes of working-class attitudes toward the environment. A creative merger of labor and environmental history, Downriver Detroit shows that working people have a right to live in and protect the places they love.

This exploration of an industrial suburb south of Detroit takes seriously the connections to place and the natural world among the working-class people who lived, worked, and played in the region. After a consideration of this type of analysis and demographic and environmental features of this highly industrialized region, each chapter considers a different topic or episode in the on-going efforts of the working-class citizens to create a humane and habitable community. Efforts to combat environmental pollution in this highly industrialized region predate the start of the environmental movement. When working-class people worked to pursue clean water or preserve precious marsh lands along the Detroit River and its tributaries, they worked through sportsmen's organizations, appealed to state agencies, or engaged in grass roots organizing. Local unions objected to the building of an atomic power plant in the regions in the1950s. And, amidst the challenges of deindustrialization, one group of steel workers attempted to buy their own company to secure their families and communities in the region. When faced with economic and environmental challenges, the working-class of Downriver Detroit expressed an enduring connection to their region, a 'bond of place.'

Lisa Fine and Mary Shirley, compliance leaders and co-hosts of the Great Women in Compliance Podcast, share wit and wisdom from some of the greatest minds in compliance, women who hail from every corner of the globe and span myriad industries and experience levels. The guidance these contributors offer and experiences they share are a breath of fresh air - both for the young professional just starting out and for the mature compliance leader with a long history in compliance and ethics. The stories are exceedingly relatable, the lessons universal. Mary and Lisa have compiled a light-hearted but substantive work as a celebration of women in the compliance space and an encouragement to stand fast in the face of adversity. As the authors and the Sending the Elevator Back Down contributors inspire readers to support and lift others up, they demonstrate a commitment to diversity (among compliance pros and everywhere) and to amplifying lesser-heard voices. Clearly, in this compliance community, the door is open. Come right in.

In Near & Far, Fine invites us into her homes in Dallas, New York, and Paris and takes us along as she visits the places and people who have been her greatest sources of inspiration. Among her favored treasures are the Mughal palaces and gardens of India, the eighteenth century home of Carl Linnaeus in Sweden, the whitewashed retreat of interior designer John Stefanidis on Patmos, and the idyllic country house and garden of London-based designer Penny Morrison. Other aesthetic sparks to Fine’s imagination include the oversize flower paintings and drawings of Scottish born artist Sarah Graham, the bohemian flair of Charlotte and Alex di Carcaci’s London home, and the extraordinary natural history collection of Jamie Creel and Marco Scarani’s New York shop, as well as their storied house in the Tangier casbah. Evocatively photographed by Miguel Flores Vianna, Near & Far not only provides a trove of design ideas but offers advice for anyone interested in giving full expression to their personal style.

The Reo Motor Car Company operated in Lansing, Michigan, for seventy years, and encouraged its thousands of workers to think of themselves as part of a factory family. Reo workers, most typically white, rural, native-born Protestant men, were dubbed Reo Joes. These ordinary fellows had ordinary aspirations: job security, decent working conditions, and sufficient pay to support a family. They treasured leisure time for family activities (many sponsored by the company), hunting, and their fraternal organizations. Even after joining a union, Reo Joes remained loyal to the company and proud of the community built around it. Lisa M. Fine tells the Reo story from the workers' perspective on the vast social, economic, and political changes that took place in the first three quarters of the twentieth century. Lisa Fine explores their understanding of the city where they lived, the industry that employed them, and the ideas about work, manhood, race, and family that shaped their identities. The Story of Reo Joe is, then, a book about historical memory; it challenges us to reconsider what we think we know about corporate welfare, unionization, de-industrialization, and working-class leisure.

The Reo Motor Car Company operated in Lansing, Michigan, for seventy years, and encouraged its thousands of workers to think of themselves as part of a factory family. Reo workers, most typically white, rural, native-born Protestant men, were dubbed Reo Joes. These ordinary fellows had ordinary aspirations: job security, decent working conditions, and sufficient pay to support a family. They treasured leisure time for family activities (many sponsored by the company), hunting, and their fraternal organizations. Even after joining a union, Reo Joes remained loyal to the company and proud of the community built around it. Lisa M. Fine tells the Reo story from the workers' perspective on the vast social, economic, and political changes that took place in the first three quarters of the twentieth century. Lisa Fine explores their understanding of the city where they lived, the industry that employed them, and the ideas about work, manhood, race, and family that shaped their identities. "The Story of Reo Joe" is, then, a book about historical memory; it challenges us to reconsider what we think we know about corporate welfare, unionization, de-industrialization, and working-class leisure. Lisa M. Fine is Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University. She is the author of "Souls of the Skyscraper: Female Clerical Workers in Chicago, 1870-1930" (Temple), and coeditor, with Mary Anderson, Kathleen Geissler, and Joyce Ladenson, of "Doing Feminism: Teaching and Research in the Academy".