Jane ware's Second Volume of Building Ohio, subtitled A Traveler's Guide to Ohio's Rural Architecture, is a wonderfully anecdotal revelation of the buildings found in the state's smaller cities and towns, as well as the countryside itself. This is the architecture born of Ohio's great and optimistic pre-1920s energy when the state was near the apex of America's wealth and importance. At some moment in the past, virtually every place in Ohio had money and some of it ended up in buildings, writes Ms. Ware.And so she demonstrates, taking us on a tour that includes churches, schools, factories, castles, frat houses, railroad stations, hog barns, and at least one water treatment plant. We meet the world's only female ironmaster, see Philip Johnson's tool shed, and visit Dave Longaberger's seven-story basket with the 70-ton handles. Building Ohio is filled with stone masons, carpenters, groundkeepers, activists, rehabbers, founders, donors, even a boiler attendant.Ms. Ware's book, the product of eight years plumbing the architectural nooks of Ohio, details the remarkable built landscape of Ohio and the people who left us such a rich heritage. Their work is monumental art, buildings to give us pause -- and to instruct and soothe us with their timeless beauty.

Van Tine and Pierces "Builders of Ohio is composed of twenty-four essays that use biography to explore Ohio's history. Collectively, they provide a historical overview of the state's development from George Croghan's search for fame and fortune on the seventeenth-century frontier through Dave Thomas's more recent creation of a fast-food empire. Each chapter also addresses important events and transformations in the state's history such as: European settlement; Native American resistance; the creation of territorial and state governments; the development of the state's educational and economic institutions; the disruption created by the Civil War; the struggle of African Americans and women to participate in Ohio's public life; efforts to ameliorate the pernicious effects of industrialization; the negotiation of the state's role in a nation increasingly dominated by the federal government; or the ramifications of de-industrialization and rise of a service economy.

This masterful, richly illustrated account of the planning and building of the most important and influential early American railroad contributes not only to the railway history but to the history of the development of the United States in the 19th century. 80 illustrations.