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Home and Away: The Rise and Fall of Professional Football on the Banks of the Ohio, 1919-1934

Carl Becker's chronicle of these early teams captures the spirit of a sport just coming into its own - before the rules were formalized and when the promise of success seemed just within reach.  Players played "for the crowd," spending nights on the bus, scrimmaging in roadside fields, enduring mud, disappointment, humiliation, and sometimes triumph.  Occasionally there was a band, and always a reporter.  As Home and Away follows the unique story of these fine, determined teams, it evokes the vibrant spirit of the era itself.  See especially the chapter titled, "Knock the Tanks and You Knock Ironton."

Border Life: Experience and Memory in the Revolutionary Ohio Valley

Richly detailed, Border Life captures the intimate universe of those who colonized Kentucky and southern Ohio during the Revolutionary era.  In reconstructing the mental world of border inhabitants, Elizabeth Perkins draws on the records of an Ohio clergyman who conducted hundreds of interviews with survivors in the 1840's to provide a vivid portrait of pioneer life in the words of the settlers themselves.