Portraits of Power

To understand Ohio politics is to understand American politics, a truth proven every two years in national elections. No journalist has written more astutely or with greater zest about politics in the Buckeye State than Abe Zaidan. For more than forty years, he covered what could be called an age of giants, a tumultuous era dominated by larger-than-life politicians like the irrepressible Governor James Rhodes and by such wrenching events as the shootings at Kent State University. Drawn from over three thousand news stories, columns, and feature articles written between 1964 and 2004, Portraits of Power presents ninety essays that, in Zaidan's witty and vivid style, shed light on this fascinating period of Ohio politics. Readers who lived through those years will be transported back to critical junctures in their lives, while those who did not will have a better understanding of the forces that helped to shape their world. Portraits of Power is not only the first draft of history, in Abe Zaidan's shrewd and polished prose, it is also political literature that has outlasted the cause of its occasion.