Produced shortly before his death in 1911 and long since out of print, Tom L. Johnson’s autobiography provides a rare personal insight into the career and philosophy of one of the most prominent figures of the American Progressive Era. Influenced by the single tax proposals of Henry George, Johnson gave up a prosperous business career to become a reform politician. Elected first to the U.S. House of Representatives, he served as mayor of Cleveland from 1901 to 1909, instituting sweeping reforms. His championship of municipal ownership, professional management of city departments, and broad public involvement in government makes Johnson’s mayoral administration one of the most celebrated in Cleveland’s history, as well as a focal point for scholars studying the Progressive Era.

Annie Dillard, a foremost practitioner of the literary epiphany, has become a representative of a necromantic movement that combines the ecological interest of wilderness literature with the aesthetics of a highly stylized literature. This first full-length study of the Pulitzer prize-winning essayist considers her as wilderness philosopher, religious mystic, professional critic, and arch-romantic.

First published in 1958, Red River Campaign examines how partisan politics, economic needs, and personal profit determined military policy and operations in Louisiana and Arkansas during the spring of 1864.
In response to the demands of Free-Soil interests in Texas and the New England textiles manufacturers’ need for cotton, Lincoln authorized an expedition to open the way to Texas. General Nathaniel Banks conducted a combined military and naval campaign up the Red River that lasted only from March 12 to May 20, 1864, but was one of the most destructive of the Civil War.

Walker and Weeks was the foremost architectural firm in Cleveland for nearly forty years, from 1911 to 1949. Its clients were the wealthy and influential of Cleveland and the Midwest; its landmark accomplishments included the Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Severance Hall, the Cleveland Post Office, and the Indiana World War Memorial.

Henry S. White, a chaplain attached to the Fifth Rhode island heavy Artillery, was captured in May 1864 and remained a prisoner of war until the following September. After his release he wrote a series of letters to Zion’s Herald, a New England Methodist newspaper, in which he described in vivid detail his capture and transportation to Andersonville and then to the officers’ prison in Macon. The letters reveal White’s eye for detail and his keen interest in the state of affairs in the south. He drew pointed comparisons between the officers and men of the two armies, and recounted the terrible lot of the prisoner of war.

Jenkins argues that the Klan drew from all social strata in Youngstown, Ohio, in the 1920s, contrary to previous theories that predominately lower middle-class WASPs joined the Klan because of economic competition with immigrants. Threatened by immigrant movement into their neighborhoods, these members supposedly represented a fringe element with few accomplishments and little hope of advancement. Jenkins suggests instead that members admired the Klan commitment to a conservative protestant moral code.

“Honoree Jeffers is an exciting and original new poet, and the Gospel of Barbecue is her aptly titled debut work. These poems are sweet and sassy, hot and biting, flavored in an exciting blend of precise language and sharp and surprising imagery that delights. They leave a taste in your mouth, these poems; they are true to themselves and to the world. They are gospel, indeed, and this young poet will be heard more and more spreading the true word. Good news!” —Lucille Cliffton

In Why Cows Learn Dutch and Other Secrets of the Amish Farm, Randy James offers an engaging view of Amish farm life, society, and values. An agricultural extension agent for twenty years, James works closely with the Amish farmers of Geauga County, Ohio, the fourth largest Amish settlement in the world, and his narrative provides new, accurate information on the Amish and their farming practices.

Strikes affect entire communities, and in the end they need the communities’ support to succeed. This was exemplified in the legendary 1937 sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan, when strikers occupied the GM plants. The striking workers needed food; they also needed information and advance warning on what management might be up to. The Women’s Emergency Brigade, formed during the Flint strike, proved indispensable to the union effort more than once. Genora Johnson Dollinger helped create the Women’s Emergency Brigade and became one of the strike’s leaders. She and her followers waded into the fray against the Flint police, the Pinkertons, and local officials sympathetic to GM, helping to achieve victory for the United Auto Workers and generating the first contract ever signed between GM and the UAW.

Grace Goulder Izant spent the last six decades of her long and productive life in Hudson, Ohio, and this, her final book, was the one that lay closest to her heart. Bringing to it her knowledge as a historian of Ohio, she lifts the story beyond the limitations of local history and makes it illuminate an entire region and time. Illustrated with numerous historical photographs and drawings from her private collection, this edition preserves the enduring quality and historical heritage of this quaint village.