My Detroit: Growing Up Greek and American in Motor City
Georgakas is amazingly adapt at sketching the social ferment and excitement of the 1950s and 1960s
—Willard Manus, Book Scope
From the very beginning, he states that this is a book about change. That change can be geographical, or cultural, as in the case of his family immigration from an agricultural and more traditional Greece to an industrialized and more modern part of the New World. His comments range from the relationship of Greek mothers to their sons and the problematics of "dating Greek girls" to confronting racial segregation in high school and forming friendships with Arab Americans. In short, he deals passionately with sociopolitical conflicts and the desire for ethnic identity, community and continuity in America. Always, it is a narrative of change that is both "desired and not desired, anticipated and unforeseen."
–Nicholas Alexiou, Journal of Modern Greek Studies
An engaging and vivid tale of ethnic life on Detroit's east side during the city's industrial zenith
---Dejan Krali, Michigan Historical Review
My Detroit demonstrates old world integrity and new world opportunity as relative concepts that take on their great influence when these apparently opposed realities come together
—Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Athens News
The book is essential reading not only for Greek Americans but for anyone who wants to know more about an important era in the history of Detroit
—Charles Moskos, American Academy of Arts & Sciences