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Reviews
| Ohio on the Move: Transportation in the Buckeye State (Ohio Bicentennial Series). By H. Roger Grant. Athens: Ohio Univ. Press, 2000. xx+210 pp., illus., maps, notes, bibl., index. $36 hb (ISBN 0-8214-1283-3), $17.95 pb (ISBN 0-8214-1284-1).
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Ohio on the Move is the first volume of five in the Ohio Bicentennial Series, created to complement Ohio's Bicentennial Celebration of 2003, with each volume discussing an aspect of Ohio's heritage. It is no coincidence that transportation is the initial subject of this series as it is typically among the core elements of any region's development. The author, H. Roger Grant, is chair and professor of the History Department at Clemson University. Prior to this appointment, he taught history at the University of Akron. Grant not only has a reputation as a noted authority on Ohio's railroad development, but he also is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on transportation history and American railroads.
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The volume's preface asserts that the goal of this project is to provide "a fresh synthesis of the old and the new." Grant claims that this work "is not a definitive account of transportation in Ohio." This is important because Ohio on the Move unveils the Buckeye State's transportation heritage by describing broad trends, accented by first-hand accounts. Instead of being definitive, this book gives a satisfying overview of Ohio's transportation history while also providing a steppingstone to further curiosity.
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Each of the seven chapters details a specific transportation mode, presented to the reader in the order of its appearance in Ohio. Chapters 1 and 2, "Roads and Highways" and "River and Lake," cover the broadest timelines, from the foot trails and canoes of the 1700s to the modern interstate system and shipping on Lake Erie and the Ohio River. Chapter 3 covers the "Ditches" ("canals") built in Ohio in response to the success of New York's Erie Canal. Ohio's railroads, the successor to its canal system, are discussed in chapter 4. The next two chapters cover "The Electric Way" (interurbans) and "Urban Transit" systems, whose relatively short existences were nonetheless influential to Ohio's industrial and commercial growth. The final chapter, "Airways," primarily discusses Ohio's contributions leading to commercial air transportation, a mode that truly influenced the way Americans live and travel.
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While presenting these transportation modes independently, the author emphasizes that each had its promoters and each had its own strengths and weaknesses. Often these modes competed with each other. For example, in the mid-1800s, Ohioans had wagon, rail, canal, Lake Erie schooners, and Ohio River paddleboats as viable options for commercial transportation. The volume discusses how the proponents of each mode of transportation addressed its growth and obstacles. Canal advocates invested in canals, railroad magnates had their money in their railroads, and so on. Thus, each chapter illustrates the thoughts and decisions of those who developed a particular mode of transportation.
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For readers with Ohio roots, Ohio on the Move provides much insight as to why their built environment is the way it is. Modern thoroughfares often lie upon or near trails that existed more than 200 years ago. Many abandoned railroad corridors have been converted to public hiking and bike trails under the Rails-to-Trails program. Portions of the Ohio and Erie Canal, unused for nearly a century, are now heralded as a National Heritage Corridor.
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Those not native to Ohio can draw similarities and contrasts to transportation developments in their regions. For example, the development of canals was dependent on terrain and available water sources, readily available goods to transport, and relative competition with other transportation methods (e.g., rail, highway), and these challenges can be compared to those of canals elsewhere, especially in the Midwest.
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Readers should note that Grant has included a thorough set of endnotes and a selected bibliography. Ohio on the Move also contains relevant historic transportation photos and maps, yet many readers, especially those not familiar with Ohio, would have benefited from the inclusion of more maps to help illustrate individual developments. As it stands, the reader may want to have a separate map of Ohio as a companion to this book.
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| Perhaps the true benefit of Ohio on the Move is that contemporary readers can, in a sense, recognize the continuity between the challenges our nation's transportation system faced between the late-1700s and today. Government legislation and funding was as crucial in the 1800s as it is now. Many anecdotal items reflect trends in contemporary American society. For example, the revelation that as part of system building late-19th-century railroads developed uniform depot architecture reminds us of the modern homogenization of suburban commercial districts along our interstate highways. |
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