The Heebie-Jeebie Girl by
Youngstown, Ohio, 1977. Between the closing of the city's largest steel mill and the worst blizzard in more than 40 years, the table is set for remarkable change. Unemployed steel worker Bobby Wayland is trying hard to help his family and still pay for his wedding, but the only solution he can think of involves breaking the law. On the other side of town, a little girl named Hope is keeping a big secret, one she won't even share with her Great Uncle Joe--she can make things move without touching them. Watching over both of them is the city herself, and she has something to say and something to do about all of this. The Heebie-Jeebie Girlis the story of an era ending and the uncertainty that awakens. It's the story of what happens when the unconscionable meets the improbable. It's the story of dreams deferred, dreams devoured, and dreams dawning. It is likely to be the most distinctive novel you read this year, but it will startle you with its familiarity. Author Susan Petrone has created an unforgettable tale of family, redemption, and magic.
The Gone Away Place by
A haunting novel of love and loss, in which a series of tornadoes rips through a small midwest town, forever altering the lives of those who live there.
Dancing with Strangers by 
Steelworker Alley by 
Slovaks of the Greater Mahoning Valley by 
Youngstown Postcards from the Steel City by
Youngstown, Ohio was a rapidly growing industrial city in the early 20th century. In 1900, the city had a population of about 45,000; ten years later, it nearly doubled to 80,000, and by 1920 had reached 120,000. This phenomenal growth was reflected in a number of structures that dotted the city's skyline, including the Mahoning Bank Building, the Masonic Temple, and the plants of three major steel companies along the banks of the Mahoning River. Youngstown also had new places for its citizens to play during this period-Idora Park, Mill Creek Park, and Wick Park. And this was all preserved for the future through another early-20th century phenomenon-the postcard. Over 190 vintage postcards illustrate this book, which will bring the reader back to the era when Youngstown was rapidly becoming the third largest steel producer in the nation.
Historic Theaters of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley by
Historic Theaters of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley traces the evolution of modern cinema through the rich local history of the Mahoning Valley. From the days of the gaslit opera houses through the era of the drive-in, the Mahoning Valley's theatrical culture has thrived. The finest theaters in northeastern Ohio rose with the manufacturing might of the Steel Valley. The Warner brothers, who started their careers in Youngstown, opened their first theater in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and celebrities from Katharine Hepburn to Red Skelton graced local stages. The finest vaudevillians and the lovely ladies of burlesque were always a ticket away. Take a trip back to the Park Burlesque and the opulent Palace Theater and revisit the theater culture of Warren and Trumbull County. Author Sean T. Posey traces the evolution of modern cinema through the rich local history of the Mahoning Valley.
Coal War in the Mahoning Valley by
The struggles and successes of the industrious coal miners in Ohio's Mahoning Valley. Year after year, local Welsh coal diggers supplied the ravenous and roaring ironworks in Mahoning Valley but the good times ended in the closing weeks of 1872. The demand for iron slackened, and with it, coal orders fell. Responding to plunging coal prices, mine owners cut wages, but rank-and-file miners would have none of it. On New Year's Day, they went on strike. The bitter stalemate broke only when operators sidestepped local labor by employing African Americans from Virginia and Italian immigrants crowding the Eastern Seaboard. Violence followed. Yet this vicious strife opened the Mahoning Valley to permanent Italian settlement. Authors Ben Lariccia and Joe Tucciarone uncover this forgotten chapter in the region's storied labor history.
The Storyteller by
So, I've written a book. Having entertained the idea for years, and even offered a few questionable opportunities ("It's a piece of cake! Just do 4 hours of interviews, find someone else to write it, put your face on the cover, and voila!") I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I've recorded and can't wait to share with the world, or reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child. This certainly doesn't mean that I'm quitting my day job, but it does give me a place to shed a little light on what it's like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams I had as young musician. From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old, to my time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with my daughters...the list goes on. I look forward to focusing the lens through which I see these memories a little sharper for you with much excitement.
Lost Youngstown by
The massive steel mills of Youngstown once fueled the economic boom of the Mahoning Valley. Movie patrons took in the latest flick at the ornate Paramount Theater, and mob bosses dressed to the nines for supper at the Colonial House. In 1977, the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company announced the closure of its steelworks in a nearby city. The fallout of the ensuing mill shutdowns erased many of the city's beloved landmarks and neighborhoods. Students hurrying across a crowded campus tread on the foundations of the Elms Ballroom, where Duke Ellington once brought down the house. On the lower eastside, only broken buildings and the long-silent stacks of Republic Rubber remain. Urban explorer and historian Sean T. Posey navigates a disappearing cityscape to reveal a lost era of Youngstown.
Car Bombs to Cookie Tables by
The Youngstown story often is told with a beginning in iron and steel and ending in decay with a subplot driven by violent mobsters and corrupt politicians. Aiming to provide a more well-rounded examination of Youngstown, this collection of essays provides an authentic look at the city through a diverse set of experiences from the perspectives of those who have lived there. Readers will gain a sense of the past, present, and future of the city. Edited by Jacqueline Marino and Will Miller, the book features contributions by Christopher Barzak, Rochelle Hurt, Eric Murphy, Ed O'Neill, Sarah Sepanek, David Skolnick, Sarah Stankorb, C Lee Tressell, Jay Williams, Andrea Wood & 35 others.
Iron Valley by
Youngstown, Ohio, and the surrounding Mahoning Valley supplied the iron that helped transform the United States into an industrial powerhouse in the nineteenth century. The story of the Mahoning Valley's unorthodox rise from mid-scale iron producer to twentieth-century "Steel Valley" is a tale of innovation, stagnation, and, above all, extreme change. Located halfway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, the Mahoning Valley became a major supplier of pig iron to America's biggest industrial regions. For much of the nineteenth century, outside consumers relied on the Valley's pig iron, but this reliance nurtured a reluctance on the part of Youngstown iron companies to diversify or expand their production. In Iron Valley: The Transformation of the Iron Industry in Ohio's Mahoning Valley, 1802-1913, Clayton J. Ruminski argues that Youngstown-area iron manufacturers were content to let others in the industry innovate, and only modernized when market conditions forced them to do so. Desperate to find new markets, some Youngstown iron manufacturers eventually looked toward steel and endured a rapid, but successful, industrial transformation that temporarily kept their old enterprises afloat in a rapidly evolving industry. Richly illustrated with rare photographs of Mahoning Valley ironmasters, mills, furnaces, and workers, Iron Valley sheds light on a previously underrepresented and vital region that built industrial America.