Praise for As Ohio Goes: Life in the Post-Recession Nation
Winner of the Independent Book Publisher Award, Bronze Medal in Current Events, 2017.
“I recommend As Ohio Goes to anyone who wants to understand the hopes, fears, anguish and heartbreak being experienced by so many of our citizens. Rana B. Khoury writes so beautifully of average people caught up in the maelstrom of an economy in transition. She’s traveled throughout Ohio—listening to the stories of people from diverse backgrounds who are struggling in this post-recession economy to provide a decent life for themselves and their loved ones. What I found most amazing about this book is the way Rana makes it comfortable for people to share the most intimate details of their lives. As you read their stories, it becomes impossible to hide from the reality of life in America today. So if you want a deeper understanding of America and the struggles of its people, I urge you to read As Ohio Goes.” – Ted Strickland, 68th Governor of Ohio
“The voices of the people Rana Khoury has included need to be heard. Policy makers deal with statistics. They need to ‘see’ the people behind them. This book takes them to that place.” – Dale Maharidge, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Someplace Like America: Tales from the New Great Depression
“Rana Khoury spent a year traveling through her native state, talking with ordinary Ohioans about how the Great Recession has ravaged their lives. The result is a devastating indictment of a society in deep economic crisis. It is an unsettling and important read.” – Perry Bush, author of Rust Belt Resistance: How a Small Community Took on Big Oil and Won
“Sobering and engaging. The author threads statistics and policy details through the personal narratives, so the reader never feels bogged down. Khoury is a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University and her writing is succinct and breezy rather than densely academic. She makes a clear case for the commonality of her subjects’ experiences and the shared fates of citizens. She wonders at the country’s course. “Who is paving it, and where do we want it to go?” she asks—and so does the reader.” – Newcity Lit (read the review here)
“Every four years, Ohio becomes a political battleground for presidential candidates, who talk a lot and pretend to listen. Rana Khoury’s captivating first book, As Ohio Goes, offers a much-needed corrective. Curious and intrepid, Khoury traveled the state for a year and has returned with stories of working men and women that are at once illuminating, heartbreaking, and inspiring. There are no easy answers found here. But if we listen to the voices that Khoury has captured, we will find plenty of hard-earned wisdom that can point the way forward.” – Gabriel Thompson, author of America’s Social Arsonist: Fred Ross and Grassroots Organizing in the Twentieth Century
Summary
For some, the Great Recession that began in 2007 was a traumatic setback; for others, it was just another dip in a long descent from comfort and security. America is changing in profound ways, but we rarely hear the voices of regular people living the transformation.
As Ohio Goes is a journey through cities, suburbs, and remote rural towns in this quintessential American state. Sitting together at dining room tables, walking through rows of planted fields, and swinging back beers at pubs, you’ll meet individuals you won’t soon forget. People like Bill, whose handicap did not push him to take disability payments until his layoff, and Rhonda, a working mother embarrassed to feed her son using food stamps. There are the young soldier who shows us his scars from deployment to Iraq but who remains in the Army to make ends meet, and the Amish man whose business loss during the downturn induced him to leave his family and the church.
Together their stories personify today’s timeliest issues, which Rana B. Khoury navigates in informative and accessible terms. From student debt and health care costs to female breadwinners and hydraulic fracturing, As Ohio Goes situates each story in a context that relates it to wider trends in Ohio and across the United States. Where economic experts deal in the abstract, Khoury pumps life into otherwise cold facts and figures, putting a human face on economic issues.
If the old adage “as Ohio goes, so goes the nation” is right, then these stories should tell us where the nation is headed. Although Ohio is a swing state, Khoury insists that blue and red do not capture the character of the place she calls home. Another reality demands attention: economic inequality has reached historic levels, and there is no indication that the trend will slow or reverse. The growing income gap threatens democratic representation, equal opportunity, and even the American Dream itself. The people in this book display remarkable adaptability, resilience, and love, despite their predicaments, yet the country’s course is the sum of individual fates. Where are Ohio and the nation going?
Learn more and order the book from Kent State University Press!