List of Figures viiiPreface xiiAcknowledgments xiii1 Ohio Before Ohio: State Geology and Topography 1Geology 2Topography 7Importance of Ohio Geology and Topography 13Further Reading 192 The First Ohioans: Pre-European Contact Ohio 20Paleo-Indian Period (c. ?-c. 11,000 years ago) 21The Archaic Period (c. 11,000-c. 2,800 years ago) 24The Woodland Period (c. 2,800-c. 1,000 years ago) 29Late Precontact Period (c. 1,100-c. 400 years ago) 41Further Reading 463 The Middle Ground: European and Indigenous Interaction in Ohio, Early 1600s to 1763 47Early Effects of European Contact 49Ohio as "The Middle Ground" 52Colonial Wars and Life in Middle Ground Ohio 54Further Reading 654 War and Peace: The End of "Middle Ground" Ohio, 1763 to 1795 67The Resistance of 1763 68Lord Dunmore's War 75The American Revolution 79The Western Confederacy and the End of the Middle Ground 87Further Reading 985 The Ohio Experiment: Formation of the Northwest Territory, Early American Settlements, and Statehood, 1783-1803 100Clearing Title and Related Problems 101Organizing Ohio and the Birth of the Public Land System 102Early Ohio Settlements 112From Territory to State 117Further Reading 123Early Ohio Statehood: A Thematic Approach 1246 A Community of Communities: Early Ohio Society 125Demographics 126Social Conflict 138Reform 141Further Reading 1597 Revolutions: Early Ohio Economic Developments 160Early Ohio's Economy 161Economic Revolutions 166Further Reading 1848 From Periphery to Center: Early Statehood and National Politics 185Early Statehood Politics 186The War of 1812 192State and National Politics, 1815-36 199Political Ascendance and Its Problems 205Sectional Politics and the End of the Second Party System 207The Constitution of 1851 209Further Reading 2129 Ohio Must Lead! The Civil War and Reconstruction 213Ohio and Sectional Conflict 215Ohio and the Civil War 221Ohio's Civil War Contribution: A Summary 233The Reconstruction Period, 1865-77 238Further Reading 24410 Why Ohio? Late Nineteenth-Century Politics and Presidents 245Why Ohio? 245State Politics 247Ohio's Presidents from Hayes to McKinley 254Further Reading 27611 The Making of an Industrial State: 1865-1920 277Industrialization 278Location and Transportation 280Natural Resources 284Finances, Entrepreneurs, and Innovation 284Migrants and Immigrants 290Industrial Work and the Rise of Organized Labor 305Literary Critiques 313Further Reading 31412 Urban Life, Leisure, and Political Activism: 1880-1920 315Urban Life and Leisure 316Urban Political Reform 322Women's Activism 329Education 335Conclusion 337Further Reading 33813 Reform and the Great War: 1912-1920 339The 1912 State Constitution 340The 1912 Elections 342The Flood of 1913 346Ohio and the Great War 348The Influenza Epidemic 355The Postwar Crisis and the 1920 Election 357Summary 358Further Reading 35914 Boom, Bust, and War: 1920-1945 360The Economy and Politics in the 1920s 361Social and Cultural Conflict 365The Great Depression and the New Deal 369World War II 380At War's End 389Further Reading 38915 Affluence and Anticommunism 391The Postwar Boom 392Migration and the Changing Cities 400The Cold War and Ohio Politics 406Conclusion 418Further Reading 41916 Rebellion and Reaction: The 1960s 420The Struggle for Black Equality 421Carl and Louis Stokes 428Resurgence of Women's Activism 430Emerging Environmental Issues 434Escalation: Vietnam and Politics 438Campus Unrest and the Kent State Shootings 445Further Reading 44917 Falling Behind: Ohio since the 1970s 451Deindustrialization 454Dealing with Decline: Ohio's Shifting Politics in the 1970s and 1980s 460A Rightward Turn: Politics at the turn of the Twenty-first Century 467Recent Demographics and Epidemics 475A Battleground No More? Politics since 2016 478Summing Up: Ohio as America 480Further Reading 482Index 483
KEVIN F. KERN is Associate Professor of History at the University of Akron. He is currently working on a book about the history of football in Ohio. Dr. Kern has published several articles and book chapters on Ohio history and the history of anthropology.GREGORY S. WILSON is Professor of History at the University of Akron, where he regularly teaches courses on U.S., Ohio, and public history. His other published works include books on the Area Redevelopment Administration, the Kent State shootings, and the Kepone environmental disaster.