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Four Cincinnatis and Other Essays
231 pages, Paperback
Published November 5, 2024
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 12, 2025
A book of appealingly short essays on a wide variety of Cincinnati topics, taken from more than forty years of the author’s published and unpublished work.
Hurley is at his best talking about race, Cincinnati’s reputation for backwardness, and the city’s search after the Civil War for a new civic identity. The essay on the history of the Greater Cincinnati Water Works is also surprisingly compelling.
The downside to a compilation of essays is that details interesting to the author tend to repeat. And a diversity of topics means they won’t all be interesting to every reader.
For readers of Cincinnati, a solid, approachable, fast dive into the history of the city.
Hurley is at his best talking about race, Cincinnati’s reputation for backwardness, and the city’s search after the Civil War for a new civic identity. The essay on the history of the Greater Cincinnati Water Works is also surprisingly compelling.
The downside to a compilation of essays is that details interesting to the author tend to repeat. And a diversity of topics means they won’t all be interesting to every reader.
For readers of Cincinnati, a solid, approachable, fast dive into the history of the city.
Displaying 1 of 1 review