Fighting the Unbeatable Foe is the first biography of Metzenbaum, a fascinating individual who, against the odds, rose from humble beginnings to become a multimillionaire businessman and one of the most effective and powerful senators in the land. By conducting interviews with Metzenbaum’s friends, foes, political scientists, and journalists and consulting primary-source materials, Tom Diemer provides new details about Metzenbaum’s business deals, his successes on Capitol Hill, and also his embarrassing failures and miscalculations. Metzenbaum remains among the most interesting and paradoxical figures in the history of Ohio politics. His story will be enjoyed by anyone interested in Ohio history and politics.

Richard Myers has been producing experimental and documentary films for over 40 years. The Films of Richard Myers chronicles these films, along with descriptions and reviews by such film critics as Roger Ebert, Arthur Knight, Roger Greenspun, Kevin Thomas, and Amos Vogel, as well as short reviews by Stan Brakhage and Pauline Kael. The major part of the book consists of 180 photos from the films, all photographed by Myers. With a background in painting, printmaking, and still photography, Myers began making films in the early 1960s when independent experimental films were truly independent. Myers conceived of the ideas, wrote the scripts, photographed, directed, and edited the films. His actors were family and friends, from his wife Pat to his grandmother, mother, and son, to Kent State University faculty and students.

Finding the Numinous explores the premise that the environments depicted in The Lord of the Rings and the Dune saga are not only for the purpose of world-building; rather, these imagined worlds’ environments are sacred spaces fundamental to understanding these texts and their authors’ purposes. Willow Wilson DiPasquale applies Tolkien’s three functions of fantasy—recovery, escape, and consolation—to demonstrate how both authors’ works are intrinsically connected to their ecocritical messages and overarching moral philosophies.

In Finding Utopia, Randy McNutt sets off again to explore Ohio’s for- gotten nooks and byways. He begins where his last journey ended— on roads less traveled—finding more ghost towns, battlefields- turned-cornfields, and old memories that beckon him like spectral hitchhikers. On the way, he meets another cast of quirky and deter- mined people who struggle to keep their towns on the map.

Melville’s audacious epic Moby-Dick has found an illustrator equal to its mercurial text. This postmodern take on the great American novel boldly returns readers to the book’s roots as a transcendental vision of man and nature. Floodgates of the Underworld includes incisive commentaries by noted Melville scholars Elizabeth Schultz, Robert Wallace, and Jill Gidmark. They discuss the influence of Del Tredici’s images in students and scholars, the relationship of his work to other Moby-Dick illustrators, and the technical and aesthetic aspects of the silkscreen process.

Rich with regional history, this biography of an influential Clevelander will be important reading for students of women’s studies and the history of philanthropy as well as those interested in Ohio’s Western Reserve and its people.

The republication of this novel reintroduces readers to a strong southern writer, an interesting female voice, and a compelling story. This realistic portrayal of life among the rural poor of the early twentieth century shows the struggle of a tough-minded woman who fought her entire life to overcome the obstacles that confronted women and the working poor. Presented here with two previously unpublished short stories, For Dear Life, edited by Virginia Pruitt and Howard Faulkner, will appeal to those interested in women’s studies, social history, and American studies, as well as to anyone who enjoys quality fiction.

The 27th United States Colored Troops (USCT), composed largely of free black Ohio men, served in the Union army from April 1864 to September 1865 in Virginia and North Carolina. It was the first time most members of the unit had traveled so far from home. The men faced daily battles against racism and against inferior treatment, training, and supplies. They suffered from the physical difficulties of military life, the horrors of warfare, and homesickness and worried about loved ones left at home without financial support. Yet their contributions provided a tool that allowed blacks with little military experience, and their families, to demand social acceptance and acknowledgment of their citizenship.

Forbes Watson, art commentator for the New York Evening Post and New York World, was probably best known as the editor of The Arts, the liveliest and most influential art magazine of the 1920s. He quickly gained a reputation as an outspoken ally of progressive American artists and a caustic annihilator of those who got in their way. This charming, confrontational connoisseur, with a knack for offending officialdom, captivated readers and attracted loyal adherents. This same anti-authority streak cost him position after position, however, and ultimately blurred his historical legacy. But Watson’s ideas were important and his life was interesting, making him a fascinating subject for this interpretive biography.

In the 1830s, as the Trans Appalachian economy began to stir and Europe’s Industrial Revolution reached its peak, concerned Midwesterners saw opportunities and risks. Success of the Erie Canal as a link to East Coast economic markets whetted the appetites of visionaries and entrepreneurs, who saw huge opportunities. Amid this perfect storm of technology, enterprise, finance, location, and timing arose some of the earliest railroads in the Midwest.