Dr. Perry Bush, professor of history at Bluffton University, will present a program Thursday, Sept. 13, on his recently published book, "Rust Belt Resistance: How a Small Community Took on Big Oil and Won."
Beginning with refreshments at 3:45 p.m., the event is free and open to the public in the Musselman Library Reading Room on the Bluffton campus. Bush will sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase.

Published by Kent State University Press, the book tells the story of how Lima, Ohio, beat long odds and saved its oil refinery from closure by British Petroleum in the 1990s. The author largely credits Lima's ultimate success to a "broad-based coalition" whose major players included refinery workers, local politicians and the city's newspaper, The Lima News.
Bush is also the author of Bluffton University's centennial history, "Dancing with the Kobzar," and is working on a book about C. Henry Smith, an early 20th-century Bluffton professor and prominent Mennonite historian. He earned his Ph.D. in history from Carnegie Mellon University in 1990 and was a Fulbright scholar in Ukraine last spring semester.