Barnstorming Ohio

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By David Giffels

Barnstorming Ohio is an on-the-ground look at the diverse challenges facing Ohio, in light of its national significance as the state that has historically sided with the presidential election winner more than any other.  The question of America's identity has rarely been more urgent than now, and no American place has ever been more reliable in its illumination of that identity than Ohio. David Giffels, a lifelong resident of the "bellwether" state, has spent a quarter century writing and thinking about what it means to live in what he calls "an all-American buffet, an uncannily complete everyplace." With Cleveland as the end of the North, Cincinnati as the beginning of the South, Youngstown as the end of the East, and Hicksville (yes, Hicksville) as the beginning of the Midwest, Ohio offers important insight into the state of the nation.