Ohio Books

a great book if you are trying to track down your family from preble county Ohio

The Fort Ancient culture thrived from 1000 A.D. to 1650 A.D.
in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky. Villages were made up of a number of circular or rectangular houses surrounding an open plaza. The Fort Ancient people continued to build small burial mounds, but gradually shifted to burials in a cemetery area with no mounds.

The authors conclude that the descendants of these natives are the tribe known the Shawnee. Brief ethnohistorical and linguistic reviews are given as well as a great deal of physical evidence found in the villages, especially analysis of bones found in burial mounds. Includes charts, graphs, drawings of skulls found along with detailed measurements and description of facial structures as well as comparative analysis with bone evidence found in other areas. This 650 page book includes an area map or maps, charts, and drawings of various skulls analyzed.

This book, which demonstrates the morality and compassion of a writer who has been offhandedly dismissed as a "cynic" by many critics, made me realize why I have always been so attracted to Bierce.
Bierce's personal stoicism, coupled with his literary romanticism, resulted in some of the most memorable stories in the history of American literature.
This is the best piece of Bierce criticism since Cathy Davidson's book about Bierce's influence on the postmoderns.
Highly recommended.

Print, Manuscript, And Performance: The Changing Relations Of The Media In Early Modern England is explores the complex interactions in early modern England between a technologically advanced culture of the printed book and a still powerful traditional culture of the spoken word, spectacle, and manuscript. The contributors include Leah S. Marcus (From Oral Delivery to Print in the Speeches of Elizabeth I); Douglas Bruster (The Structural Transformation of Print in Late Elizabethan England); Alexandra Halasz (Pamphlet Surplus: John Taylor and Subscription Publication); Joseph Lowenstein (Wither and Professional Work); Randall Anderson ("The Merit of a Manuscript Poem": The Case for Bodleian MS Rawlinson Poet. 85); Arthur F. Marotti (Manuscript Transmission and the Catholic Martyrdom Account in Early Modern England); Harold Love (The Rapes of Lucina); Margaret J.M. Ezell (Ann Halkett's Morning Devotions); Steven Mullaney (Reforming Resistance); F.J. Levy (Staging the News); and Michael D. Bristol (Shamelessness in Arden: Early Modern Theater and the Obsolescence of Popular Theatricality). Also available in paperback, Print, Manuscript, And Performance is highly recommended reading for students of English literature, society, history, performing arts, printing, and popular culture.

This book is a wonderful introduction to the rise and fall of the first movement for proportional representation voting systems in American municipal elections. As Barber details, Ohio led the way, with most of its major cities using "PR" with real success in bringing communities together at the table of representation. The eventual repeals are all the more painful because they were usually done because of intolerance toward a minority community. By simpling providing the facts in a readable, interesting way, Barber's book lays the goundwork for a revival.

Frank Waters' book on the Hopi is perhaps the best account of their rich traditions and history. You would be well served to read that but as equally interesting is this account of his living with the Hopi while working on that book. This is written in a straight forward style so it is an easy read. Water wisely leaves the complication of the Hopi for his more scholarly work. This book explains the characters that he met and the conditions of their lives. This book will break your heart. The Book of Hopi will liberate your soul.

This is a wonderful book. One could almost recommend it as a student's first history of 1840s England. Former Professor Altick loves his subject, knows it thoroughly, and shares his knowledge with us with infectious enthusiasm. He treats Punch neither as an antiquarian curiosity, nor inflates its importance beyond what it was -- a popular magazine in an era of many voices. The chapters are ordered thematically, but, unlike so many other scholars, Professor Altick knows how to tie his themes together, so the book works beautifully as a whole. Anyone interested in Victorian culture should read this book. Historians interested in producing good works, in any field, would learn from it.

I relied heavily on this book while I was writing my thesis. I have even considered writing Lyons and Drew to thank them personally for conducting such an important study. Punishing Schools asks the tough questions in today's world where one can "Never be too safe." They look specifically at a suburban high school to subtly ask the question "What are we really afraid of? And what are the long-term effects of our (often unfounded) fears?"

If you are looking for a book that will take you into today's high school in search of the issues students, teachers, and parents face on a daily basis, I have found few other books more accurate than Punishing Schools. Lyons and Drew attempt to maintain as neutral ground as possible, but you will find them falling on the side of personal rights and liberties over security in most instances. Do not buy this book expecting to find another reason to fear America's youth, but be sure to pick this book up if want to regain touch with the fact that high schools are populated by children rather than prisoners.

This book has many other books that I would consider "companions" to Punishing Schools: including specifically "Zero Tolerance" by William Ayers, Rick Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and Jesse L. Jackson; and on the converse side of the issue "School Crime and Policing" by William L. Turk.

Usually books about inanitmate articles aren't that interesting ,but Jamie Bero -.Johnson and her husband have gained the reader's attention and respect of their apparent knowledge about their subject matter. I really had no idea there even existed such a thing as Purinton pottery and how widely distributed it was in the 40's.This book made me want to go out immediately and try to find some of these wonderful pieces of Americana so beautifully described in this book!

This jewel by Iowa poet Dan Lechay deserves widespread recognition. Why? Maybe it's because the poems speak to the everyday occurrences and details of life in small midwestern towns or cities that make it so attractive to me. Maybe it's because his work reminds me of such accomplished poets as Robert Bly, James Wright, and especially the just appointed Poet Laureate of the U.S., Ted Kooser, which caused me to read and then re-read this wonderful vision of the American Midwest that will be familiar to every reader. The book was the winner of the 2003 Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and the comments of judge Alan Shapiro eloquently tell it all: "Under Lechay's soulful gaze, the backyards, neighborhoods, animals, and landscapes he describes dramatize the often wrenching connection between beauty and loss, evanescence and memory...a thoroughly mature and accomplished book." A delightful, memorable read.