Cleveland, Ohio – A Select Bibliography with Emphasis on Immigration/Migration

Courtesy of Professor John Grabowski

I. Histories of Cleveland and Northeastern Ohio

Chapman, Edmund H. Cleveland: Village to Metropolis. Cleveland: Western Reserve Historical Society, 1981.
Hatcher, Harlan. The Western Reserve: The Story of New Connecticut in Ohio. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1991 (reprint of a 1949 edition).
Johannesen, Eric. Cleveland Architecture, 1876-1976. Cleveland: Western Reserve Historical Society, 1981.
Keeting, Dennis, Krumholz, Norman (eds.). Cleveland: A Metropolitan Reader. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1995.
Miller, Carol, and Wheeler, Robert. Cleveland: A Concise History. Indiana University Press, 1996.
Souther, Mark. Believing in Cleveland: Managing Decline in the Best Location in the Nation. Temple University Press, 2017.
Van Tassel, David D. & Grabowski, John J (eds). The Dictionary of Cleveland Biography. Indiana University Press, 1996.
Van Tassel, David D. & Grabowski, John J (eds). The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Indiana University Press, 1987, 1996.
Weiner, Ronald. Lake Effects: History of Urban Policy Making in Cleveland. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2005.
Wheeler, Robert. Visions of the Western Reserve: Public and Private Documents of Northeastern Ohio, 1750-1860. Ohio State University Press, 2000.

Online General Resources

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History/Dictionary of Cleveland Biography is also available in a continuously updated on-line version at http://ech.case.edu.
Cleveland Memory, http://Clevelandmemory.org (maintained by Cleveland State University).
Cleveland State University's Center for Public History and Digital Humanities has also created the Historical Cleveland App. See: http://app.clevelandhistorical.org/.

II. General Books Relating to Migration/Immigration to Cleveland and Northeast Ohio

Barton, Josef. Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Romanians, and Slovaks in an American City, 1890-1950. Harvard University Press, 1975.
Campbell, Thomas, & Miggins, Edward (eds.) The Birth of Modern Cleveland, 1865-1930. Western Reserve Historical Society, 1988.
Hammack, Grabowski & Grabowski, (eds.). Identity, Conflict and Cooperation: Central Europeans in Cleveland, 1850-1930. Western Reserve Historical Society, 2002. [this work includes chapters on Croatians, Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, Slovaks, and Slovenians).
Wheeler, Robert. Visions of the Western Reserve: Public and Private Documents of Northeastern Ohio, 1750-1860. Ohio State University Press, 2000.
Writers Program of the WPA. The Peoples of Cleveland (1942). Western Reserve Historical Society 2001.

III. Selected Works on Specific Communities

African-American

Black, Samuel, and Williams, Regennia. Through the Lens of Allen E. Cole: A Photographic History of African Americans in Cleveland, Ohio. Kent: Kent State University Press in Cooperation with the Western Reserve Historical Society, 2012.
Davis, Russell. Black Americans in Cleveland from George Peake to Carl Stokes. Associated Publishers, 1985.
Frazier, Nishani. Harembee City: The Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland and the Rise of Black Power Populism. University of Arkansas Press, 2017.
Kusmer, Kenneth. A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland, 1870-1930. University of Illinois Press, 1976.
Michney, Todd. Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland, 1900-1980. University of North Carolina Press. 2017
Phillips, Kimberly. AlabamaNorth: African-American Migrants, Community and Working Cass Activism in Cleveland, 1915-1945. University of Illinois Press, 1999.

Asian

Fugita, Stephen. Asian Americans and their Communities of Cleveland. Cleveland State University, 1977.

Arab

Macron, Mary Haddad. Arab-Americans and their Communities of Cleveland. Cleveland State University, 1981.

Croatian

Cizmic, Ivan, et. al. From the Adriatic to Lake Erie: A History of Croatians in Greater Cleveland. American Croatian Lodge, Inc. 2000.

Czech

Sabol, John. Alzo, Lisa. Cleveland Czechs. Arcadia Publishing. 2009.

German

Rowan, Steven (trans.). Cleveland and its Germans (1897-'98 edition). Western Reserve Historical Society, 1998.
________. Cleveland and its Germans (1907, second edition). Western Reserve Historical Society, 1998.
________ The Jubilee Edition of the Cleveland Wachter und Anzeiger, 1902. Western Reserve Historical Society, 2000.

Greek

Rodis, Themistocles and Vasilakis, Manual. Greek Americans of Cleveland: Immigration and Assimilation Since 1870. Hellenic Preservation Society of Northeastern Ohio, 2008.

Hungarian

Papp, Susan M. The Hungarian Americans and their Communities of Cleveland. Cleveland State University, 1981.

Irish

Callahan, Nelson, Hickey, William. Irish Americans and their Communities of Cleveland. Cleveland State University, 1978.

Italian

Veronesi, Gene P. Italian Americans and their Communities of Cleveland. Cleveland State University, 1977.

Jewish

Gartner, Lloyd. History of the Jews of Cleveland. Western Reserve Historical Society/Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, 1978, 1987.
Rubinstein, Judah and Vincent Sidney. Merging Traditions: Jewish Life in Cleveland. Western Reserve Historical Society, 1978.
Rubinstein, Judah with Avner, Jane. Merging Traditions: Jewish Life in Cleveland. Kent State University Press, 2004.
Wertheim, Sally H. and Bennett, Alan D. Remembering; Cleveland’s Jewish Voices. Kent State University Press, 2011

Lithuanian

Cadzow, John. F. Lithuanian Americans and their Communities of Cleveland. Cleveland State University, 1978.

Polish

Boberg, Alice, Grabowski, John, et.al. Polish Americans and their Communities of Cleveland. Cleveland State University, 1976.

Romanian

Andrica, Theodore. Romanian Americans and their Communities of Cleveland. Cleveland State University, 1977.

Serbian

Geogevich, Dragoslav. Serbian Americans and their Communities of Cleveland. Cleveland State University, 1977.

Slovak

Megles, Susi., et. al. Slovak Americans and their Communities of Cleveland. Cleveland State University, 1978.
Pankuch, Jan (Gallo, Rasto trans.). History of the Slovaks of Cleveland and Lakewood. Western Reserve Historical Society, 2001.

Slovenian

Klemencic, Matjaz. Slovenes of Cleveland. Novo Mesto, 1995.

IV. Topical (e.g. industry, politics, art) Overviews and Institutional Histories

Adams, Henry. Victor Schreckengost and 20th-Century Design, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.
Cigliano, Jan. Showplace of America: Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue, 1850-1910. Kent State University Press, 1991.
Dawson, Virginia P. Engines and Innovation: Lewis Laboratory and American Propulsion Technology. NASA, 1991.
Fogarty, Michael, Hammack, David. Cleveland from Startup to the Present; Innovation And Entrepreneurship in the 19th and early 20th Century. Center for Regional Economic Issues, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University 2002
Gibans, Nina Freedlander and James D. Cleveland Goes Modern: Design for the Home, 1930-1970. Kent State University Press, 2014.
Grabowski, John J. Sports in Cleveland: An Illustrated History. Indiana University Press, 1992.
Harwood, Herbert H. Invisible Giants: The Empires of Cleveland’s Van Sweringen Brothers. Indiana University Press, 2003.Kerr, Daniel R. Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland, Ohio. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011
Leedy, Walter C. Cleveland Builds an Art Museum: Patronage Politics, and Architecture, 1884-1916. Cleveland Museum of Art , 1991.
Martin, Sean. A Stitch in Time: The Cleveland Garment Industry. Western Reserve Historical Society, 2015.
Moore, Leonard N. Carl B. Stokes and the Rise of Black Political Power. University of Illinois Press, 2002.
Murnane, M. Susan. Bankruptcy in an Industrial Society: A History of the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio. University of Akron Press, 2015.
Stradling, David and Richard. Where the River Burned: Carl Stokes and the Struggle to Save Cleveland Cornell University Press, 2015
Ullom, Jeffrey. The Cleveland Playhouse: America’s First Regional Theater and its Search for a Home. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014.
Van Tassel, David D. with Vacha, John. Behind Bayonets: The Civil War in Northern Ohio. Kent State University Press, 2006
Witchey, Holly Rarick and Vacha, John. The Fine Arts in Cleveland: An Illustrated History. Indiana University Press, 1994.
Wlasiuk, Jonathan. Refining Nature: Standard Oil and the Limits of Efficiency. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017.