Ohio & the World: Essays Toward a New History of Ohio (review)

To honor the bicentennial of Ohio statehood in 2003, The Ohio State University sponsored a series of eight public lectures that have been collected in this text. The first chapter, by Andrew Cayton, defines themes of Ohio history, including, "to rethink the popular image of Ohio as a bastion of American normalcy, the comfortable heartland"; "the progressive story of nineteenth century Ohio turns into decline and stagnation"; and the geographical diversity of the state, particularly between north and south.

David Edmunds, in the next chapter, reconstructs Ohio in the late eighteenth century. He portrays the Native American groups as they allied with either the French or British then, later, with the Americans or British. The Indians did quite well until the collapse in the 1790s and when they were removed from the state in order to gain their land.

James Horton continues the theme of cultural intolerance in the next chapter as he emphasizes the second-class citizenship that African Americans suffered in the antebellum era. Horton contrasts liberal northeast Ohio, which was settled by New Englanders and Pennsylvanians, with southern Ohio, which was settled by Southerners, a contrast illustrated by the difference between Cleveland and Cincinnati.

Eric Foner displays the importance of Ohio during the Civil War era. Many of the major political and military leaders were sons of Ohio, and the state contributed more soldiers to the Union cause per capita than any other Northern state. As a result, the presidency was dominated by Buckeyes from 1869 to the early 1900s.

Kathryn Sklar illustrates the progressivism of Ohio in the era between the Civil War and World War I as it urbanized and industrialized as the focus of the national core. A civil society of popular culture based on democracy and justice prevented major violence in the state in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 in Newark, unlike some other states. The national social gospel movement was led by Washington Gladden of Columbus. Tom Johnson emerged as a populist progressive mayor of Cleveland. National female leaders of the temperance movement (Eliza Stewart) and the suffrage movement (Harriet Taylor Upton and African American Hallie Quinn Brown) came from Ohio.

James Patterson discusses the strength of Ohio as late as the 1950s, with its booming industry based on steel, oil, and automobile manufacturing. Ohio was still a place of choice in the American Union, with its stalwart small-town conservative values represented by Republican Robert Taft in contrast with the more cosmopolitan and liberal Atlantic coast. Nonetheless, racial tensions were an issue, particularly in the larger Ohio cities in the 1950s and 1960s.

Herbert Asher depicts Ohio in 2003 as in a state of decline economically and politically. Globalization has led to deindustrialization, and the average educational attainment in Ohio is among the worst in the nation. Ohio is no longer a place of choice, giving way to more vibrant regions like the Sunbelt and he two coasts. In the last chapter, William Kirwin echoes Asher in his formula for reviving Ohio economically by 2053, emphasizing higher education focused on the sciences and computer technology. However, as Asher pointed out, Ohio is no longer geographically central to the national economy as it once was in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

This book will work well in Ohio history courses as a supplement to a more detailed central text. The writing is enhanced by many illustrations, particularly the New Deal post office murals that are examples of popular imagery of the state. All in all, other states would do well to produce a similar text as they celebrate their history.