Ohio: A History of the Buckeye State explores the breadth of Ohio’s past, tracing the course of history from its earliest geological periods to the present day in an accessible, single-volume format. Features the most up-to-date research on Ohio, drawing on material in the disciplines of history, archaeology, and political science Includes thematic chapters focusing on major social, economic, and political trends Amply illustrated with maps, drawings, and photographs Receipient of the Ohio Geneological Society's Henry Howe Award in 2014
As the state of Ohio prepares to celebrate its bicentennial in 2003, Andrew R. L. Cayton offers an account of ways in which diverse citizens have woven its history. Ohio: The History of a People, centers around the many stories Ohioans have told about life in their state. The founders of Ohio in 1803 believed that its success would depend on the development of a public culture that emphasized what its citizens had in common with each other. But for two centuries the remarkably diverse inhabitants of Ohio have repeatedly asserted their own ideas about how they and their children should lead their lives. The state's public culture has consisted of many voices, sometimes in conflict with each other. Using memoirs, diaries, letters, novels, and paintings, Cayton writes Ohio's history as a collective biography of its citizens. Ohio, he argues, lies at the intersection of the stories of James Rhodes and Toni Morrison, Charles Ruthenberg and Lucy Webb Hayes, Carl Stokes and Alice Cary, Sherwood Anderson and Pete Rose. It lies in the tales of German Jews in Cincinnati, Italian and Polish immigrants in Cleveland, Southern blacks and white Appalachians in Youngstown. Ohio is the mingled voices of farm families, steelworkers, ministers, writers, schoolteachers, reformers, and football coaches. Ohio, in short, is whatever its citizens have imagined it to be.
The story of Ohio--from its geographical position to its cultural mix and economic development--and its centrality to Americans inside and outside the state.
Striking natural beauty draws many visitors to Lake County, but the area also has a rich and captivating history. Willoughbeach Amusement Park arose where one of the worst shipwrecks in Great Lakes history occurred years before. Secret passageways and tunnels helped slaves escape to freedom. Native son and Tuskegee Airman Earl R. Lane earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. Marge Hurlburt, a service pilot during World War II, set an international women's flight speed record, and Amy Kaukonen, one of the nation's first female mayors, personally raided suspected bootleggers during Prohibition. Author Jennifer Boresz Engelking uncovers the history behind some of Lake County's most well-known people and landmarks and reveals stories lost to time.
In 1989, when Ohio and Its People was first published, the state was still reeling from severe economic blows. Now its economy is resurgent. Its cities have made great progress in renewing portions of their downtowns and, in some cases, their neighborhoods.
