Scott reynolds nelson biography channel

PERSONAL:

March 28, , in Nyack, NY; play a part of John Reynolds and Carole Brown Nelson; married Cindy Hahamovitch, December 28, ; children: Painter Nelson Hahamovitch, Anne Isabel Hahamovitch Nelson. Education: Attended Rollins College; University of North Carolina-Chapel Elevation, B.A. (with highest honors), , M.A. and Ph.D.,

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department touch on History, College of William standing Mary, Williamsburg, VA E-mail—[email&#;protected].

CAREER:

College decompose William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, Department of History, summer trial program director, , assistant prof, , associate professor, , Leslie and Naomi Legum Professor, —.

MEMBER:

Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

C. Ballard Breaux Visiting Fellowship, Filson Historical Companionship, ; Anisfield-Wolf Literary Prize dole out Nonfiction, National Award for Beneficial Arts, and Merle Curti Trophy for Best Book in U.S. Social and Cultural History, Sense of American Historians, all , all for Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Recounting of an American Legend.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Iron Confederacies: Southern Railways, Klan Violence, stall Reconstruction, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC),

Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, high-mindedness Untold Story of an English Legend,Oxford University Press (New Dynasty, NY),

(With Carol Sheriff) A People at War: Civilians present-day Soldiers in America's Civil Battle, ,Oxford University Press (New Dynasty, NY),

(With Marc Aronson) Ain't Nothing but a Man: Clean up Quest to Find the Genuine John Henry, National Geographic (Washington, DC),

Contributor to books, counting Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Marches in North American History, edit by Martha Hodes, New Dynasty University Press (New York, NY), ; and Many Middle Passages, edited by Cassandra Pybus, Corner Christopher, and Marcus Rediker, Installation of California Press (Berkeley, CA), Contributor of articles and reviews to journals, including Reviews dull American History and Civil Clash History. Electronic communications chair, Labour and Working Class History Society, Associate editor, Journal of character Gilded Age and Progressive Era, —. Member of editorial foil, Society for the History comment the Gilded Age and Increasing Era, , Virginia Magazine break into History & Biography, —, alight Labor: Studies of Working Grade History of the Americas, —.

SIDELIGHTS:

Story and song have mythologized Lavatory Henry, a supposedly superstrong nineteenth-century railroad worker who was boundary to outpace machinery in dynamic through rock but died suspend the process. Some historians think John Henry was based bout a real person, but Adventurer Reynolds Nelson believes he has found that real person obscure profiles him in Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Innumerable Story of an American Legend. Nelson, a historian with interests that include labor, race, arm the American South, makes prestige case that he was Privy William Henry, an African Earth from New Jersey who confidential served with the Union Gray and began working in prosecute construction as a convict manual worker after having been imprisoned (perhaps wrongly) for theft in Town shortly after the Civil Combat. He and many other work force cane used hammers and spikes assail make holes in mountains withdraw which dynamite could be located to blast space for great tunnel; steam-powered drills did that work at the same hang on, while managers tried to optate which process was faster. Admiral concludes that John Henry undoubtedly died on the job, in all likelihood not from the exhausting recollection with the drill but running away silicosis, a lung disease caused by inhaling rock particles, which killed hundreds of railroad employees. In telling John Henry's tale, Nelson also tells of goodness racism that outlasted slavery, apply the laborers' harsh conditions, add the legend of John Chemist developed, and what it came to mean to various associations of Americans.

Several critics deemed Nelson's work a powerful evocation expose John Henry's world and spruce testament to railroad workers, unexcitable though some were not persuaded he had discovered the correct John Henry. "Whether or shout one accepts his thesis—some contender investigators do not—Mr. Nelson's be concerned demonstrates what can happen during the time that a historian applies the arrive at of his trade to corporate matter traditionally reserved for folklorists and bluesmen," reported Jennifer Thespian in the Chronicle of Betterquality Education. "It hammers home class idea that historical detail pot be just as compelling thanks to a legend." William Grimes, inspect for the New York Times, thought Nelson offered "plausible" data for his thesis, but added: "Whether or not John William Henry is the man seems almost irrelevant. He is clever fascinating guide to the imitation of the Southern railroads abide the grim landscape of Reconstruction." In the Houston Chronicle, Alex Lichtenstein remarked that Nelson's "sources cannot provide definitive evidence make out John Henry's life, death present-day rebirth as an icon. However I believe most readers decision find in his imaginative reminiscence of the John Henry fact a profound and welcome compliment of the unrecognized labors zigzag went into building this country." A Publishers Weekly commentator distinct the book "a remarkable check up of scholarship and a engrossing story," while Howard summed passion up by saying: "Nelson's dope humanize the legend; they dent not diminish its pathos add-on its power."

Nelson told CA: "My father was a raconteur, humbling my mother was an Plainly teacher. I also had trim spectacular English teacher in buoy up school—Ms. Davenport—who let me scribble short stories instead of documents. I came to college jumble knowing how to write double-cross essay, but I could dash off dialogue and tell a trade event story. Finally, my wife categorical me how to write history."

When asked who influences his thought, he said, "In no specific or distinct order: Edna St. Vincent Poetess, William Gibson, Marcel Proust, Ursula LeGuin, and Emily Dickinson. Uncontrollable try to read a insufficiently of poetry from the mean to the s because rush helps me understand how exercises use (and used) language."

When of one\'s own free will to describe his writing proceeding, Nelson said: "Frantic. I own acquire a tendency to root travel in primary sources, and glop often uncomfortable and impatient reliable secondary material. I write a cut above like a journalist: I matter lots of primary sources, subsequently write a story, then prepared back and fact-check. I alter endlessly.

"There are a number push talismanic words which people hire and use but which no part of us really understand. Violently of these words are manufacture, urbanization, economic growth, and reduced development. The words have answer very powerful but are quasi- meaningless. Writers of nonfiction keep a way of treating these words as if they straight affected events, though they varying not really actors at compartment. Using these terms not nonpareil deadens prose, it dulls goal. As a social historian Hysterical tended at first to discharge the actions of individuals, nevertheless I have become more concerned in how individuals made concealed of the world around them, exerted power over others, presentday then created patterns of manner that future generations accepted brand natural. There are a delivery of institutions—the plantation, the tummy, the commodity exchange—which have unembellished history that defines the channel that millions of people find. Yet we scarcely understand at they came from. Understanding county show individuals created them will element us destroy them, or rag least alter them. Yet contempt understand these institutions largely misss careful biographical research."

When asked accident his favorite books, he said: "Nature's Metropolis by Bill Cronon. It's a little too lingering, but it's imaginative and intrepidity. Who'd have thought that thoroughfare about wheat, wood, and existing would make you sit test the edge of your seat?

"I'm a historian. Most people consider (from high school days) become absent-minded history is about names focus on dates. It's actually about discovering how and why the earth changed. I want other exercises to understand the excitement ad infinitum historical discovery. For that justification I write in a ormal tone, but I don't venture to disguise or bury distinction investigative process: How do incredulity historians learn about the past? How do we put go ballistic together? Why are some make-believe more convincing than others? Personal fact, I want to show to folks that anyone gather together do primary research into say publicly past. I try to slice the way."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, , Kenneth W. Noe, review of Iron Confederacies: Southern Railways, Klan Mightiness, and Reconstruction, p.

Chronicle pale Higher Education, February 9, , Jennifer Howard, "Digging Deep convey the Real John Henry."

Entertainment Weekly, September 29, , Michelle Kung, review of Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Chronicle of an American Legend, possessor.

Federal Lawyer, March-April, , Jon M. Sands, review of Steel Drivin' Man, p.

Houston Chronicle, October 20, , Alex Painter, "Folklore Made Flesh: Historian Player Reynolds Nelson Resurrects Real-life Author of Legendary Steel-Drivin' Man," Tang section, p.

Journal of Land History, June, , W. Fitzhugh Brundage, review of Iron Confederacies, p.

Journal of Economic Literature, December, , review of Iron Confederacies, p.

Journal of South History, November, , review interpret Iron Confederacies, p.

Library Journal, October 1, , Lawrence Heed. Maxted, review of Steel Drivin' Man, p. 90; April 1, , Randall M. Miller, con of A People at War: Civilians and Soldiers in America's Civil War, , p.

New York Times, October 18, , William Grimes, "Taking Swings combination a Myth, with John Speechmaker the Man," p. E3.

Publishers Weekly, August 14, , review robust Steel Drivin' Man, p.

Technology and Culture, April, , Wife Gordon, review of Iron Confederacies, p.

Times Literary Supplement, Go on foot 23, , Michael Anderson, "Hammered Home," p.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), November 12, , Eric Arnesen, "Tracking Down the Guy behind a Railroad Legend," owner. 9.

Virginia Magazine of History become more intense Biography, spring, , Peter Rachleff, review of Iron Confederacies.

ONLINE

College forfeit William and Mary Web site, (July 13, ), "Q&A get the gist Nelson: Beyond the Myth warm John Henry."

BlogCritics, (December 3, ), Jon Sobel, review of Steel Drivin' Man.

World Socialist Web site, (May 15, ), Jonathan Keane, "John Henry: From Folk Version to Communist Superhero."