Barnstorming Ohio: To Understand America

by David Giffels Narrated by David Giffels

Overview

An on-the-ground look at the diverse challenges facing Ohio, in light of its national significance as the state that has aligned with presidential election winners more than any other -- from an award-winning author and essayist dubbed "the Bard of Akron" (New York Times).

The question of America's identity has rarely been more urgent than now, and no American place has ever been more reflective 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.

As a historic 2020 presidential election approaches, Barnstorming Ohio is Giffels' account of a year on Ohio's roads, visiting people and places that offer valuable reflections of the national questions and concerns, as well as astounding electoral clairvoyance -- since 1896, Ohio has accurately chosen the winner in twenty-nine of thirty-one presidential elections, more than any other state.

With lyricism and a native's keen eye, Barnstorming Ohio takes readers into the living room of a man whose life was upended just shy of retirement by General Motors' shutdown of its Lordstown assembly plant. It offers an exclusive view into the presidential campaign of Ohio Democratic hopeful Tim Ryan. It takes us into the sodden soybean fields of farmers struggling to outlast the dual punch of a protracted trade war and historic rainfall, and to an indie rock music festival in Dayton a week after a mass shooting there. We enter the otherworld of long-dormant shopping malls as Amazon transforms them into vast new fulfillment centers. On the lighter side, Giffels makes a "beer run" into Ohio's booming craft brewing industry and revisits the legend (and the bird-nest toupee) of Jim Traficant, a larger-than-life Ohio politician whom many have called the "proto-Trump."

In a year when Americans are seeking answers, Barnstorming Ohio offers rare and carefully nuanced access to the people who have always held them.

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

Journalist David Giffels’s terrific new book is a thought-provoking and poignant examination of the election bellwether state of Ohio. The Akron native and bestselling author is an adept narrator of his own work, with a friendly, everyday-Joe sort of voice and a professional’s understanding of pace and tone. Seeking to understand his Rust Belt state, which swung to Trump in 2016, Giffels drove more than 4,000 miles and interviewed seemingly everyone—auto workers, politicians, professors, farmers, suburbanites, inner-city ministers, rich folks, and single moms who work two jobs while going to community college. Blending his own story with those of the people he meets, Giffels writes with an open heart and mind. In so doing, he has produced a timely and timeless portrait of the American heartland. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

06/01/2020

Journalist and Akron native Giffels (coauthor, Wheels of Fortune) explores the qualities that make Ohio a bellwether for the rest of America in this trenchant mix of memoir, reportage, and political analysis. Noting Ohio’s record as the only state to have voted for every winning presidential candidate since 1964, Giffels traveled across the state in 2019 and early 2020 to gauge how its residents were faring in the lead-up to the next election. He interviews a “lifelong Democrat” who considers Trump’s presidency “the best thing that’s happened to America in a long time,” auto workers in shock after G.M. shut down its Lordstown plant, and a divorced single mom who took time off from her two jobs to attend the third annual Women’s March in Washington, D.C. Giffels also reflects on his son’s decision to become a paramedic in the midst of Ohio’s opioid epidemic, and infuses his social commentary with local color and memorable turns-of-phrase (travel mugs are “prime weaponry in any working parent’s arsenal”). Offering tea leaves rather than a crystal ball, Giffels doesn’t definitively answer the question that prompted his study: is America broken? Still, this nuanced and often lyrical account, which ends with Ohio “emerg as a beacon of leadership” during the coronavirus pandemic, offers a measure of hope. Agent: Daniel Greenberg, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. (Aug.)

From the Publisher

"David Giffels is becoming one of the really invaluable American reporters. With a sharp comic eye for mid-American idiosyncrasies that recalls Thurber or Keillor, he also has a political conscience, and consciousness, that allows him to illuminate, with gentle acuity, many vexed corners in our national debate, from pro sports to strip malls. He is one of those rare writers who gives us truth without sentiment or rhetoric, and I never read him without pleasure, and a feeling that I now understand my country better than I did before."—Adam Gopnik, author of A Thousand Small Sanities

"There is no single narrative about Ohio, and nobody understands this better than its native son, David Giffels. His journalist's instincts set his compass as he explored this fabled political battleground, and his storyteller's heart is why this book unfolds in lyrical ways. Giffels neither romanticizes nor excuses, but chapter by chapter, one observation at a time, he reveals his love for the people who live here. This is the way to tell the whole story of Ohio. It is the only way to tell the truest one."—Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Daughters of Erietown

"For how so much of the modern political discourse paints Ohio as a state of flux in election years, and a monolith every other time, I'm thankful for the gentle and generous touch of David Giffels. In this book, he writes the nuances of the state and its people with incredible warmth and immense insight. He does justice to the many tensions and affections that rumble through the state, always. These are uncertain years, with more uncertain years promised to follow. I am thankful for the familiar (and sometimes uncomfortable) clarities this book offers."—Hanif Abdurraqib, New York Times bestselling author of Go Ahead in the Rain and They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us

“Illuminating…. Giffels expertly observes some of the issues and events weighing on Ohioans…. Giffels offers context but allows Ohioans to tell their stories, which are rich and complicated. The people and places he visits during a year on the road erase any notion of the state as a monolith…. In what could be argued is Barnstorming’s greatest achievement, Giffels resists the urge to whitewash our history in service of a political narrative that focuses exclusively on white, working-class voters…. Barnstorming is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping our electorate in a place too often written off as 'flyover country.'"—The Los Angeles Review of Books

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

"Giffels's terrific new book is a thought-provoking and poignant examination of the election bellwether state of Ohio. The Akron native and bestselling author is an adept narrator...Blending his own story with those of the people he meets, Giffels writes with an open heart and mind. In so doing, he has produced a timely and timeless portrait of the American heartland."
—AudioFile

"An engaging compendium of personal narrative and memoir, travelogue, ethnography, and vignettes that serve as evidence of the state's national significance. In a way, it is a tortured love letter, waxing poetic about the place and its people, and tearfully hashing over the ways things have gone wrong. It is also a white paper of sorts, arguing for greater attentiveness to this "bellwether" state, one with a knack for predicting presidential wins and acting as a canary in the coal mine for broader misalignments, divisive politics, festering social problems, and public health emergencies, from the opioid crisis to COVID-19. Giffels' gift with language, his astuteness as a social observer and analyst, and his deep connection to the people of Ohio makes this a highly engaging and worthwhile read."—Booklist

"Giffels... writes gracefully at every stop and actively seeks pockets of sunlight amid the gloom....An affectionate, realistic survey of a state coming back from the brink."—Kirkus Reviews

"[A] trenchant mix of memoir, reportage, and political analysis.... [Giffels] infuses his social commentary with local color and memorable turns-of-phrase.... [T]his nuanced and often lyrical account...offers a measure of hope."—Publishers Weekly

"Written in an engaging and poetic style, this exploration of Ohio is told with care and sensitivity. Readers interested in current events and politics will enjoy this highly readable account."—Library Journal

"Akron writer David Giffels decides to learn what Ohioans are like today....The people speak, and he listens."—Akron Beacon Journal

"By providing an Ohioan's view on these questions, David presents a human, empathetic, and holistic take on the stories that reflect the state's, and by extension America's, identity."
—The Devil Strip

“Barnstorming Ohio is a welcome interpretation of living in a bellwether state. [Giffels’] elegant prose, in turns blunt and poetic, is a gift—a balm of reason for unreasonable times….Giffels’ exploration is both revealing and calming: This, too, shall pass.”—Ohio Humanities

“[Giffels] carefully listens to folks of various walks of life…. [His] contacts as he travels are interesting and insightful, but…some of the richness of this book comes from Giffels’ vast understanding of the history of Ohio and of his knowledge of Ohio authors.”—The Daily Record

Library Journal

08/01/2020

Ohio has chosen the presidential winner in 29 of the last 31 elections, and in this latest work, Giffels (journalism, Univ. of Akron; Furnishing Eternity) seeks to discover what makes Ohio a bellwether state. According to Giffels, Ohio is average in politics, climate, economics, and lifestyles, making it an All-American everyplace. The state encompasses large urban and industrial areas as well as swaths of farmland, small towns, and the third largest university in the United States. Giffels's tour takes readers around the state, where he talks to out-of-work autoworkers in Lordstown uncertain of their future, along with soybean and corn farmers contending with unprecedented rains that threatened to destroy crops and livelihoods. Side trips explore Ohio's craft brewing industry and its impact on the revitalization of local economies and the over-the-top politician, known as a proto-Trump, Jim Traficant. The book ends as the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic sets in while Ohio's governor, Mike DeWine, and Health Director, Amy Acton, became guides during the crisis. Written in an engaging and poetic style, this exploration of Ohio is told with care and sensitivity. VERDICT Readers interested in current events and politics will enjoy this highly readable account.—Chad E. Statler, Westlake Porter P.L., Westlake, OH

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

Journalist David Giffels’s terrific new book is a thought-provoking and poignant examination of the election bellwether state of Ohio. The Akron native and bestselling author is an adept narrator of his own work, with a friendly, everyday-Joe sort of voice and a professional’s understanding of pace and tone. Seeking to understand his Rust Belt state, which swung to Trump in 2016, Giffels drove more than 4,000 miles and interviewed seemingly everyone—auto workers, politicians, professors, farmers, suburbanites, inner-city ministers, rich folks, and single moms who work two jobs while going to community college. Blending his own story with those of the people he meets, Giffels writes with an open heart and mind. In so doing, he has produced a timely and timeless portrait of the American heartland. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2020-05-10
An Ohio native chronicles his road trip through his complicated home state, which has gotten only more complicated in the Trump era.

Giffels, a longtime Akron-based journalist, has no grand unified theory of Ohio to offer, no common denominator for a place that encompasses Deep South, urban, Midwestern, and Appalachian cultures and split political sensibilities. It is, he writes, “an all-American buffet, an uncannily complete everyplace.” But he also senses that the loose tethers connecting the state are further unraveling, so he hit the road to understand the fraying. In Lordstown, he found a factory town betrayed first by GM and then by Trump’s empty promises of revival. Giffels visited farmers struggling amid tariffs and punishing storms. In Elyria, a community pins its hopes on Amazon building a warehouse on the site of a dead mall; in Dayton, the opioid epidemic persists; in Cincinnati, relations between police and black residents remain tense. Throughout the book, Giffels tries to square these challenges with the fact that the state turned so eagerly to Trump in 2016. To that point, he finds a few lessons in the late Jim Traficant, the corrupt, pugnacious congressperson who still earned respect for a seemingly genuine compassion for the common man. The author’s efforts to cover multiple bases can feel breezy at times, and there’s little drama in his deep dive into the short-lived presidential candidacy of Tim Ryan. But Giffels also writes gracefully at every stop and actively seeks pockets of sunlight amid the gloom: a boom in craft brewing, hard-nosed progressive activism, and a stubbornness exemplified by Robert Pollard, the Dayton-based frontman of the boozy but indefatigable band Guided by Voices. In Ohio, writes the author, “struggle is a sort of birthright, and it has inspired energy and innovation in the generation that has followed the industrial decline.”

An affectionate, realistic survey of a state coming back from the brink.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178953341
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	08/25/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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