In the Footsteps of Tocqueville by Bernard-Henri L?vy

And finally Detroit, sublime Detroit, the city that during the war, because of its car and steel factories, vaunted itself as “the arsenal of democracy,” and that once one has entered it–whether in the Brush Park area, north of downtown, or, worse, East Detroit–seems like an immense, deserted Babylon, a futuristic city whose inhabitants have fled: more burned or razed houses; collapsed facades and roofs that the next big rain will carry away; trash heaps in former gardens; prowlers; Dumpster divers; nature reasserting its rights; foxes, some nights; crack houses; closed schools; a liquor store ringed with barbed wire.