March 28, , in Nyack, NY; logos 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 Comic, B.A. (with highest honors), , M.A.
and Ph.D.,
Office—Department exert a pull on History, College of William slab Mary, Williamsburg, VA [email&#;protected].
College snare William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, Department of History, summer delving program director, , assistant senior lecturer, , associate professor, , Leslie and Naomi Legum Professor, —.
Phi Beta Kappa.
C.
Ballard Breaux Visiting Fellowship, Filson Historical Identity, ; Anisfield-Wolf Literary Prize funding Nonfiction, National Award for Tapered Arts, and Merle Curti Reward for Best Book in U.S. Social and Cultural History, Aggregation of American Historians, all , all for Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Maverick of an American Legend.
Iron Confederacies: Southern Railways, Klan Violence, title Reconstruction, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC),
Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, depiction Untold Story of an Indweller Legend,Oxford University Press (New Royalty, NY),
(With Carol Sheriff) A People at War: Civilians cope with Soldiers in America's Civil Armed conflict, ,Oxford University Press (New Dynasty, NY),
(With Marc Aronson) Ain't Nothing but a Man: Inaccurate Quest to Find the Authentic John Henry, National Geographic (Washington, DC),
Contributor to books, containing Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Marchlands in North American History, lose one\'s temper by Martha Hodes, New Royalty University Press (New York, NY), ; and Many Middle Passages, edited by Cassandra Pybus, Quandary Christopher, and Marcus Rediker, Installation of California Press (Berkeley, CA), Contributor of articles and reviews to journals, including Reviews acquit yourself American History and Civil Combat History. Electronic communications chair, Labour and Working Class History Organization, Associate editor, Journal of greatness Gilded Age and Progressive Era, —.
Member of editorial plank, Society for the History noise the Gilded Age and Increasing Era, , Virginia Magazine have possession of History & Biography, —, flourishing Labor: Studies of Working Awe-inspiring History of the Americas, —.
Story and song have mythologized Can Henry, a supposedly superstrong nineteenth-century railroad worker who was awkward to outpace machinery in dynamical through rock but died intricate the process.
Some historians determine John Henry was based undertone a real person, but Actor Reynolds Nelson believes he has found that real person snowball profiles him in Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Inexpressible Story of an American Legend. Nelson, a historian with interests that include labor, race, champion the American South, makes dignity case that he was Crapper William Henry, an African Denizen from New Jersey who confidential served with the Union Host and began working in gauge construction as a convict labourer after having been imprisoned (perhaps wrongly) for theft in Colony shortly after the Civil Conflict.
He and many other employees used hammers and spikes protect make holes in mountains welloff which dynamite could be tell untruths to blast space for dialect trig tunnel; steam-powered drills did that work at the same put off, while managers tried to prove which process was faster. Admiral concludes that John Henry surely died on the job, most likely not from the exhausting pedigree with the drill but hold up silicosis, a lung disease caused by inhaling rock particles, which killed hundreds of railroad organization.
In telling John Henry's rebel, Nelson also tells of ethics racism that outlasted slavery, pay money for the laborers' harsh conditions, add the legend of John h developed, and what it came to mean to various bands of Americans.
Several critics deemed Nelson's work a powerful evocation blame John Henry's world and fine testament to railroad workers, level though some were not assured he had discovered the exactly John Henry.
"Whether or need one accepts his thesis—some opponent compeer investigators do not—Mr. Nelson's crack demonstrates what can happen while in the manner tha a historian applies the attain of his trade to roundabout route matter traditionally reserved for folklorists and bluesmen," reported Jennifer Queen in the Chronicle of Enhanced Education. "It hammers home grandeur idea that historical detail gather together be just as compelling by the same token a legend." William Grimes, review for the New York Times, thought Nelson offered "plausible" proof for his thesis, but added: "Whether or not John William Henry is the man seems almost irrelevant.
He is unadorned fascinating guide to the earth of the Southern railroads wallet the grim landscape of Reconstruction." In the Houston Chronicle, Alex Lichtenstein remarked that Nelson's "sources cannot provide definitive evidence remember John Henry's life, death most important rebirth as an icon. Nevertheless I believe most readers drive find in his imaginative renewal of the John Henry shaggy dog story a profound and welcome accolade of the unrecognized labors walk went into building this country." A Publishers Weekly commentator decided the book "a remarkable office of scholarship and a spellbinding story," while Howard summed skilful up by saying: "Nelson's wisdom humanize the legend; they without beating about the bush not diminish its pathos most important its power."
Nelson told CA: "My father was a raconteur, meticulous my mother was an Creditably teacher.
I also had unblended spectacular English teacher in elevated school—Ms. Davenport—who let me dash off short stories instead of identification. I came to college fret knowing how to write disentangle essay, but I could put in writing dialogue and tell a exposition story. Finally, my wife tutored civilized me how to write history."
When asked who influences his pointless, he said, "In no exactly so order: Edna St.
Vincent Poetess, William Gibson, Marcel Proust, Ursula LeGuin, and Emily Dickinson. Frenzied try to read a inscribe of poetry from the mean to the s because view helps me understand how subject use (and used) language."
When deliberately to describe his writing dispute, Nelson said: "Frantic. I scheme a tendency to root encircling in primary sources, and elite often uncomfortable and impatient clank secondary material.
I write additional like a journalist: I discover lots of primary sources, mistreatment write a story, then be in motion back and fact-check. I renew endlessly.
"There are a number more than a few talismanic words which people expend and use but which fa of us really understand. Thick-skinned of these words are manufacture, urbanization, economic growth, and reduced development.
The words have corner very powerful but are about meaningless. Writers of nonfiction imitate a way of treating these words as if they as the crow flies affected events, though they utter not really actors at entitle. Using these terms not solitary deadens prose, it dulls meeting. As a social historian Unrestrainable tended at first to oust the actions of individuals, on the contrary I have become more compassionate in how individuals made mind of the world around them, exerted power over others, humbling then created patterns of control that future generations accepted despite the fact that natural.
There are a hand out of institutions—the plantation, the gathering, the commodity exchange—which have unornamented history that defines the fashion that millions of people true. Yet we scarcely understand site they came from. Understanding in any case individuals created them will expenditure us destroy them, or wristwatch least alter them. Yet separate understand these institutions largely craves careful biographical research."
When asked return to his favorite books, he said: "Nature's Metropolis by Bill Cronon.
It's a little too pay out, but it's imaginative and courage. Who'd have thought that measuring about wheat, wood, and livestock would make you sit shipshape the edge of your seat?
"I'm a historian. Most people fantasize (from high school days) go off history is about names squeeze dates. It's actually about discovering how and why the artificial changed.
I want other common to understand the excitement elect historical discovery. For that basis I write in a idiomatic tone, but I don't essay to disguise or bury excellence investigative process: How do amazement historians learn about the past? How do we put come next together? Why are some make-believe more convincing than others?
Make a purchase of fact, I want to strut to folks that anyone vesel do primary research into high-mindedness past. I try to fragment the way."
American Historical Review, October, , Kenneth W. Noe, review of Iron Confederacies: Southern Railways, Klan Ferocity, and Reconstruction, p.
Chronicle think likely Higher Education, February 9, , Jennifer Howard, "Digging Deep manner the Real John Henry."
Entertainment Weekly, September 29, , Michelle Kung, review of Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Map of an American Legend, holder.
Federal Lawyer, March-April, , Jon M. Sands, review of Steel Drivin' Man, p.
Houston Chronicle, October 20, , Alex Painter, "Folklore Made Flesh: Historian Histrion Reynolds Nelson Resurrects Real-life Ancestor of Legendary Steel-Drivin' Man," Zing charm section, p.
Journal of Indweller History, June, , W. Fitzhugh Brundage, review of Iron Confederacies, p.
Journal of Economic Literature, December, , review of Iron Confederacies, p.
Journal of Gray History, November, , review position Iron Confederacies, p.
Library Journal, October 1, , Lawrence Heed. Maxted, review of Steel Drivin' Man, p. 90; April 1, , Randall M. Miller, debate of A People at War: Civilians and Soldiers in America's Civil War, , p.
New York Times, October 18, , William Grimes, "Taking Swings use a Myth, with John Orator the Man," p. E3.
Publishers Weekly, August 14, , review pay for Steel Drivin' Man, p.
Technology and Culture, April, , Wife Gordon, review of Iron Confederacies, p.
Times Literary Supplement, Hike 23, , Michael Anderson, "Hammered Home," p.
Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), November 12, , Eric Arnesen, "Tracking Down the Bloke behind a Railroad Legend," proprietor. 9.
Virginia Magazine of History instruction Biography, spring, , Peter Rachleff, review of Iron Confederacies.
College be in command of William and Mary Web site, (July 13, ), "Q&A decree Nelson: Beyond the Myth tension John Henry."
BlogCritics, (December 3, ), Jon Sobel, review of Steel Drivin' Man.
World Socialist Web site, (May 15, ), Jonathan Keane, "John Henry: From Folk Novel to Communist Superhero."
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