Ohio Books

I had to read this for an anthropology class prior to visiting Cameroon, little did I know how accurate it would be, I don't even think I grasped the whole story the first time because I had never been in that culture. This is an excellent work, fast reading and very informative. Good for anyone who wants to learn about Cameroonian culture or just another view of the world in general.

Your Madness, Not Mine - A Review. "We're the matches that will light the gunpowder that has been lying cold like ash. If we don't take a step who will . . . ?" This definitive assertion and rhetorical question, posed by an enterprising Beba woman in Juliana Makuchi Nfah Abbenyi's collection of short stories,Your Madness, Not Mine,is evocative of the author's own project which in many ways is as potent and innovative as the above metaphor. To read Makuchi, a Cameroonian woman writer, and postcolonial intelligentsia in the West, is to land at once in a rich, complex and contradictory world, bubbling with tensions ensuing from gender conflicts, polyglossia and constant shiftings of center / periphery, self / other dichotomies. In a span of nine short stories, Makuchi guides us through the contours of her native African land which shares the patriarchal history with the rest of the world, while exposing its own unique gender quarrels, compromises, and victories. The first story, "The Healer", for instance, plays upon the myth of motherhood that is upheld as the major or sole criterion of womanhood in most cases. It shows how a society that sees barren women as a curse, can end up shoving them into the hands of wicked charlatans who cheat them ruthlessly and drive them insane. The title story also has a woman domesticated and deprived of individual freedom by her typically patriarchal husband despite being educated and capable of making financial contributions to the household. But if these are stories of women's biological pathology and gender vulnerability, then in "Election Fever" we have a story of women's manipulative and conniving powers. The grandmother in this story takes her entire family by surprise when she secretively joins many (opposition)political parties and accepts bribery in the shape of cash and Pakistani rice. She also instills a lesson on flippancy and exploitation that leaders and followers mutually play as part of the political game, in her young granddaughter who accompanies her to party meetings. "Bayam Sellam" however, is the story that presents the traditional strength and entrepreneurship of Camaroonian women in the shape of market women. Descendants of strong willed mothers and grandmothers, these market whizzes possess the solidarity and business acumen required to call up a strike and force the government into declaring a state of emergency. If the women in Makuchi's world are economically and politically aware and active, than her men are by no means lacking behind in this arena. They have their own share of pondering and debating over the postcolonial scramble that Camaroon has become since independence in 1960. Hailing from that part of central Africa which has been thrice colonized (Germans, Britishers and French, all had their share of plunder of this land) and is still struggling to wrench free from the clutches of the neocolonial beast gnawing in the shape of capitalist America, the men in these narratives are often concerned about the grim socio-economic fate that awaits them. "American Lottery" and "The Forest Will Claim You Too" are two such stories which delineate the myriad of home grown as well as imposed problems that jitter the heart of this country. Government corruption in particular, and elitist callousness in general, French aggression and racism, in addition to the economic exploitation by next door neighbors like Nigeria, deforestation or "environmental genocide" by both French and Asians, leading to other social hazards like "timber babies", and loss of ancient herbal medicinal provisions are some of the ailments that contribute towards breaking the backbone of Camaroonian economy, and falsifying its persistent efforts towards modernization. No wonder Makuchi blatantly points at the devaluation of the CFA (the Camaroonian currency) and the escalating inflation scenario to be the root cause behind the brain drain that America is enjoying today. The implicit question that lingers right under the narrative surface seems to be: If the "Third World" youth is often eager to have a way out of this labyrinthian hole and aspires for that alluring land of promises, who is to blame? Nonetheless, it is relieving to find that not all Camaroonian youth are attracted to the West. Peter and his friends in "American Lottery", for instance, are well aware of the dilemmas of identity loss, alienation and frustration that are quick to follow the fate of those who turn their face away from the poverty and confusion of motherland in the hope of totally adopting and assimilating a foreign culture. The same densely packed story depicts local riots, curfews and rebellions to be amongst other things that keep Camaroonians perpetually involved in their country's future. Like her themes, Makuchi's images and metaphors are often drawn from both indigenous and foreign sources. So we have palm and plantain, wrappa and nsaa, juxtaposed with the image of the Marlboro man with his will - o'- the - wisp pose and foreign embassies with their whining twining queue of locals. Her stories, with both rural and urban settings also often break into poetic strings of thought and are embellished with sprinklings of the Beba language, some pidgin, Anglophone as well as Francophone diction. Reading these superb pieces of fiction has definitely been a very enriching experience for me. If you are looking for thought provoking yet lucid, and passionately written fictionalized theory, or theorized fiction, then this is the text for you.

Lots of fun and I learned a lot even though I have followed Buckeye Football for 35 years.

this book provides concise data concerning ohio's criminal laws. available at-a-glance is the criterion for all of title 29 and many traffic offenses.

As the title suggests, this book is a sequel to Ramey's first work, "50 Hikes in Ohio," which in my opinion is the finest guide to Ohio hiking availible. First, I will give an evaluation of this work on its own merits and then compare the sequel to the original.

This book describes 50 hikes in the Buckeye state. The hikes are scattered throughout the state, but there is a noticably higher concentration near Columbus and Cleveland than Cincinnati. Since I live near Cincinnati and I know there is plenty of quality hiking near Cincinnati that has not been covered in any of Ramey's works, that leaves me scratching my head a little. Putting that aside, hikes range in length from 1 to 6.5 miles, with the average at around 2.5-3. Most of the trails described here are hikable by everyone in decent condition, with only a few that pose much of a challenge. Each hike contains an excellent map (usually copied from an USGS topo map), and an extensive background on the trail and area. Ramey points out many details along the trail that most hikers would overlook. Therefore, hiking a trail with this book in hand is like walking a trail with a professional naturalist.

Given the popularity of Ramey's original 50 hikes book, I now move to a comparison of these two works. The strengths of the original 50 hikes book, in my opinion, are the author's friendly writing style, the quantity and quality of information presented (I would include the maps in this area), and the creation of interest in hiking (i.e. making you want to hike the trail yourself). In these areas, this work is every bit the match of the original. Ramey does his homework on the phone and in the library before sitting down in front of the word processor.

The main difference between the two works is the length of the trails described. You will not find any long backpack trails or any Wayne National Forest trails in this second work. Rather, most of these hikes are short nature trails. Also, this work features more hikes from state parks and state nature preserves than the original, which featured a wider variety of lands. The trails you will find in this work are not the longest and most famous trails in Ohio, but rather smaller areas ideal for quiet and solitude. I'm not saying the trails in this book are inferior to those in the original, just that they are different, and a purchaser should be aware of these differences.

In summary, Ramey is one of my favorite trail authors, and he has come through with another excellent work. If I had to choose just one of his works, it would probably be the original 50 hikes book, but why anyone would choose just one I don't know. This is a fine addition to the literature on Ohio hiking and makes a nice compliment to the original 50 hikes work. If you are interested in Ohio hiking, this book should be in your library.

anything ohio state is good. very interesting, and learn a lot of history about ohio state.

Based upon the famous Draper Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society, this transcription of original sources was conceived as a sequel to the Society's volume on Lord Dunmore's War of 1774. The documents selected by Thwaites and Kellogg pick up the story in March 1775 and continue through May 1777, essentially the first two years of the American Revolution. The sources, while not forming a continuous narrative, nonetheless shed light on the principal incidents and personalities (Matthew Arbuckle, William McKee, George Morgan, the Delaware chief White Eyes, and the Seneca chief White Mingo) of importance along the broad frontier that extended from the Greenbrier region of Virginia to Kittanning on the Upper Allegheny. The focus of the documents is on the defense of the American border while it was still being undertaken by the militia of the western counties. The volume closes with the transfer of the command of Fort Pitt to General Hand-an officer of the Continental army-signifying a milestone in American military history and in the history of westward expansion. In these pages the reader will learn about daily life on the frontier; massacres and other atrocities; the reactions of Americans in the West to news of the Revolution in the East; daring missions to re-arm the militia; plots and counter-plots hatched by the British, Spanish, Patriots, and the regional Indian tribes (Creeks, Shawnees, Delawares, Ottawas, Senecas); and the crucial Treaty of Pittsburgh of September 1775 agreed to by the colonists and a large Indian delegation. The net effect of the latter was to free up a number of frontiersmen to fight in the eastern campaign of the Revolution and, perhaps more importantly, to open up Kentucky and by extension the western territory to greater settlement by Americans. While not a genealogical volume in the true sense of the term, The Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 1775-1777 allows us to place many individuals-any one of whom is easily found in the detailed index at the end of this intriguing book-on the frontier during the two years under investigation.

Abba Hillel Silver was one of the leaders of the American Jewish community in the thirties, forties, and early fifties. A Reform Rabbi in Cleveland he was considered one of the great orators of his day. An impressive imposing figure he played a key role in promoting the Zionist cause in the United States. Unlike his elder counterpart Stephen Wise who strongly supported Roosevelt, Silver advocated a bipartisan approach in rallying Americans to the Zionist cause. This political biography tells in great detail the story of the struggle to forward the Zionist cause.And this when the strong State Dept. Saudi connection was already well in place.
Silver was a man of no small ego, but as Raphael makes clear of very great courage and devotion. This book makes a convincing case for the significance of Silver's contribution in helping the Jewish state come into being, and survive in its early years.

Any serious student of African American literature has read the fiction and/or journals of Charles Waddell Chesnutt, one of the most ambitious, intelligent, and under-rated writers of his time. "The Absent Man" is a must-read for Chesnutt scholars, because in it, Duncan explores some of the reasons for Chesnutt's enigmatic reputation: his elusive authorial stance; his introspective personality; his lifelong preoccupation with the ways in which society constructs a person's identity; and his persistent examinations of racial attitudes at a time when much of the reading public was unprepared both emotionally and intellectually for such honesty. Duncan painstakingly dissects the various narrative constructs--such as masking, and the first-person narrator-protagonist vs. the witness-narrator--with which Chesnutt experimented in his writing. Duncan demonstrates an astute understanding of Chesnutt's delicate role: a 19th-century black writer attempting to challenge the racial assumptions of his readers, most of whom were white, and gain fame and fortune in the process. Ambitious indeed, and, sadly, Chesnutt in the end suffered from critical backlash. After Chesnutt's death in 1932, his canon seemed neglected for a time; however, critical attention increased during the latter half of the 20th century, and, influenced by Chesnutt scholar Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., Duncan's voice is a competent addition. While some critics have focused mainly on Chesnutt's most well-known works, such as "The Conjure Woman" and "The Marrow of Tradition," Duncan gives special attention to Chesnutt's lesser known short fiction, such as the short stories "Baxter's Procrustes" and "The Shadow of My Past." Duncan's is a much-needed contribution to our understanding and appreciation of Chesnutt's rhetorical brilliance.

Cunningham was the last of a long line of great sailor-admirals who made the Royal Navy master of the seas for centuries. He was a superb sailor, a longtime "destroyer man" and a tough old sea dog who rose to the top of his profession and became First Sea Lord, Britain's top naval officer. He wasn't the kind of career-minded, self-serving politician who has come to dominate the ranks of the U.S. Navy's top officers in modern times. If you are interested in war at sea and/or you are a former sea-going Navy officer like myself, then take time to read this book, you'll enjoy it.

I received my order in a timely manner and the book was in great condition. It was everything that I expected it would be.