Ohio and its people / George W. Knepper.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Bicentennial Edition of Ohio and Its People is a revised and updated volume of this bestselling work and includes a new final chapter examining Ohio through the end of the twentieth century. Author George W. Knepper presents contemporary information on the national and state political arenas, the economy as it affects Ohio, the economic and environmental revival of Cleveland, and an updated bibliography. Ohio and Its People remains a wonderful classroom text and history of Ohio.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

A major, full-length, one-volume history of the Buckeye State. Knepper shows that Ohio has not been dominated by one set of factors over others. Rather its history is that of the most ``middle'' of the midwestern states. Knepper provides admirable balance in this model state history, beginning with prehistory and ending in the late 1980s. There is sufficient anecdote to make it interesting popular reading and enough detail and interpretation to satisfy a scholar's need for a historical synthesis. With no footnotes, few illustrations, and a ten-page book-only bibliography, it is suitable for high schools and above. Walter Havighurst's Ohio: A Bicentennial History (LJ 5/15/77), a more superficial work, and E.H. Roseboom and F.P. Weisenberger's History of Ohio (1953; Ohio Historical Soc., 1969. rev. ed.), are the only comparable works. Essential for Ohio libraries, and highly recommended for libraries in neighboring states and large public and academic libraries.-- Patrick J. Brunet, Univ. of Wisconsin Lib., La Crosse (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

A finely crafted comprehensive history of the Buckeye State, whose dominant theme is the representative character of the Ohio story to the national experience. Knepper captures the panorama of the Ohio experience from its prehistoric and historic Indian populations to the present, explaining not only Ohio's political history at the state and national levels, but also its cultural, social, intellectual, and economic life. His account gives well-balanced attention to all periods of the state's history: its formative period prior to the Civil War; the role played by Ohio (and its citizens) as a national leader politically and industrially from the post-Civil War period to 1920; and the declining fortunes of the state since WW I, as it slipped from its position of national dominance. The concluding chapters are valuable in understanding the fate, and distress, suffered by Ohio from the 1970s onward in the wake of the economic collapse of the industrial Midwest and the state's response for reinvigorating its fortunes. Although Knepper clearly is an enthusiast for Ohio and its role on the national stage, his book is void of the boosterism typical of many state histories. A work that readers not only from Ohio but from all regions of the country will find informative and useful. P. Weeks Kent State University