Main Street Blues

by Davies, Richard O.

• ISBN13: 9780814207826
• ISBN10: 0814207820
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-07-01
• Publisher: Ohio State Univ Pr

Summary

Richard O. Davies takes the reader through two hundred years of American history as reflected in the small Ohio farming village of Camden. Davies describes the development of the relatively self-sufficient community that emerged from the Ohio land rush of the early nineteenth century, a community that reached its apex during the 1920s and then entered into a period of slow decline caused by forces beyond its control. He details the roles of land speculation, the railroad era, the impact of the automobile, the emergence of a tightly knit community, and finally the post-World War II loss of business and population to the nearby cities of Dayton, Hamilton, and Cincinnati.

Author Biography

Richard O. Davies, a native of Camden, is a professor of history at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Table of Contents

Preface
Prologue. Plainville, U.S.A.: The Towns We Left Behind	p. 1
Dover: The Building of a Community	p. 9
Winesburg: Life along Main Street	p. 43
Camden: The Halcyon Days of the 1920s	p. 61
Depression: "The Worst of Times"	p. 89
War: "Camden Behind the Men Behind the Guns"	p. 117
The Last Picture Show	p. 137
Main Street In Repose	p. 163
Epilogue. Camden: The Town We Left Behind	p. 185
Notes	p. 197
Bibliography	p. 213
Index	p. 221
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