Ohio: The History of a People

by Andrew R.L. Cayton

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 memoris, 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.

Genres: History

480 pages, Hardcover

First published April 2, 2002

About the author

A specialist in the history of early America and the Atlantic World, Andrew Robert Lee Cayton was Distinguished Professor of History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. A native of Cincinnati, he received a B.A. with high honors from the University of Virginia and an M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from Brown University. He was previously a Visiting Professor of History at The Ohio State University as well as the John Adams (Fulbright) Professor of American Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, The Washington Post Sunday Book World, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Reviews in American History, The Journal of American History, The William and Mary Quarterly, The Journal of the Early Republic and The Great Plains Quarterly.

Reviews

[Nat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love history books. It was nice to read about my home state

[Jack Hands · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is immensely difficult to find comprehensive, well-researched, well-written histories focused solely on a specific state, and I have long searched for a non-fiction book that effectively captures Ohio’s history, essence, successes, and flaws. This was a lucky find in an old bookstore in Bloomington! 🌰

This book, written by a Miami University professor as the state neared its bicentennial in 2003, does a fantastic job at covering the political, cultural, and historical landscape of Ohio’s first 200 years. It highlights the admirable goals of Ohio’s first citizens and the state’s hard-won development of a public common culture, in spite of competing regional interests. The author also never shies away from extremely dark events in the state’s history, presenting a full, unbiased viewpoint of the 1890s lynchings of innocent black Americans, violent labor disputes with the rise and fall of powerful unions, and the redlining of the 1960s and 70s. I found the presentation of Ohio’s history neither hagiographic nor deconstructionist—exactly what I want in a history book!

The book also champions the stories of everyday Ohioans and how they were representative of their time period and an emerging sense of Ohio as a true place, gaining its own culture and distinct identity. These individuals include Toni Morrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, Pete Rose, William Howard Taft, and more.

My only criticism is that the book could’ve been longer! If another historian ever decides to write an updated version in thirty years, I would include more on figures like Neil Armstrong, unique Ohio institutions and businesses, and a more expanded analysis on the state in the late twentieth century.

My favorite quote from the book: “Snow is covering the landscape from the southern shores of Lake Erie to the hills of Muskingum Valley. It’s blanketing people living in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. The bells chime the hour. And snow covers the graves of the countless people who have lived and died in Ohio, people who imagined it as nothing more and nothing less than home.”

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. I learned a LOT from reading this book, and highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in Ohio. Such a thoughtful and thorough engagement with the topic, I really feel that I have gained a lot of insight from reading this. And the surest sign of a good book: I am curious to read more about Ohio now, following up on the readings mentioned in the book.

The book was written by the late husband of a friend in Ohio (he dedicated the book to her), but I discovered it by a different route. It was Christmas time and my Ohio relatives wanted gift suggestions, so I looked the OSU Press website and found this book. So glad I did!

[Mike Moses · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stopped reading it. The account is very disjointed and assumes a level of knowledge of historical context not recounted in the text.