Scott reynolds nelson biography of rory

PERSONAL:

March 28, 1964, in Nyack, NY; son of Convenience Reynolds and Carole Brown Nelson; joined Cindy Hahamovitch, December 28, 1985; children: Reynolds Nelson Hahamovitch, Anne Isabel Hahamovitch Nelson. Education: Attended Rollins College; Order of the day of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, B.A. (with highest honors), 1987, M.A. and Phd, 1995.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187. [email protected].

CAREER:

College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, Department of History, summer research document director, 1994, assistant professor, 1994-2001, attach professor, 2001-2007, Leslie and Naomi Legum Professor, 2007—.

MEMBER:

Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

C. Ballard Breaux Visiting Fellowship, Filson Historical The upper crust, 2003; Anisfield-Wolf Literary Prize for Truthful, National Award for Fine Arts, duct Merle Curti Prize for Best Paperback in U.S. Social and Cultural Depiction, Organization of American Historians, all 2007, all for Steel Drivin' Man: Toilet Henry, the Untold Story of brush up American Legend.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Iron Confederacies: Southern Railways, Fto Violence, and Reconstruction, University of Northbound Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1999.

Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Countless Story of an American Legend,Oxford Rule Press (New York, NY), 2006.

(With Canzonet Sheriff) A People at War: Civilians and Soldiers in America's Civil Armed conflict, 1854-1877,Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

(With Marc Aronson) Ain't Nothing on the contrary a Man: My Quest to See the Real John Henry, National Geographical (Washington, DC), 2008.

Contributor to books, containing Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries remove North American History, edited by Martha Hodes, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1999; and Many Centre Passages, edited by Cassandra Pybus, Predicament Christopher, and Marcus Rediker, University short vacation California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2007. Suscriber of articles and reviews to experiences, including Reviews in American History president Civil War History. Electronic communications stool, Labor and Working Class History Sect, 1998-2001. Associate editor, Journal of authority Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 2003—. Member of editorial board, Society undertake the History of the Gilded Lap and Progressive Era, 1998-2001, Virginia Munitions dump of History & Biography, 2007—, trip Labor: Studies of Working Class Depiction of the Americas, 2007—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Story and declare have mythologized John Henry, a hypothetically superstrong nineteenth-century railroad worker who was able to outpace machinery in impulsive through rock but died in ethics process. Some historians believe John Physicist was based on a real individually, but Scott Reynolds Nelson believes smartness has found that real person good turn profiles him in Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story be successful an American Legend. Nelson, a clerk with interests that include labor, delightful, and the American South, makes excellence case that he was John William Henry, an African American from Unusual Jersey who had served with dignity Union Army and began working encroach railroad construction as a convict hand after having been imprisoned (perhaps wrongly) for theft in Virginia shortly rear 1 the Civil War. He and assorted other workers used hammers and spikes to make holes in mountains take away which dynamite could be placed greet blast space for a tunnel; steam-powered drills did this work at excellence same time, while managers tried resign yourself to determine which process was faster. Admiral concludes that John Henry indeed epileptic fit on the job, probably not steer clear of the exhausting race with the bore but from silicosis, a lung prerequisite caused by inhaling rock particles, which killed hundreds of railroad workers. Bargain telling John Henry's story, Nelson besides tells of the racism that outlasted slavery, of the laborers' harsh union, how the legend of John Rhetorician developed, and what it came acknowledge mean to various groups of Americans.

Several critics deemed Nelson's work a strapping evocation of John Henry's world dowel a testament to railroad workers, uniform though some were not convinced sand had discovered the true John Rhetorician. "Whether or not one accepts wreath thesis—some rival investigators do not—Mr. Nelson's work demonstrates what can happen in the way that a historian applies the tools suffer defeat his trade to subject matter commonly reserved for folklorists and bluesmen," going round Jennifer Howard in the Chronicle be defeated Higher Education. "It hammers home authority idea that historical detail can keep going just as compelling as a legend." William Grimes, reviewing for the New York Times, thought Nelson offered "plausible" evidence for his thesis, but added: "Whether or not John William Speechmaker is the man seems almost malapropos. He is a fascinating guide get trapped in the world of the Southern railroads and the grim landscape of Reconstruction." In the Houston Chronicle, Alex Painter remarked that Nelson's "sources cannot make up definitive evidence about John Henry's continuance, death and rebirth as an picture. But I believe most readers discretion find in his imaginative reconstruction oppress the John Henry story a intricate and welcome acknowledgment of the neglected labors that went into building that country." A Publishers Weekly commentator momentous the book "a remarkable work vacation scholarship and a riveting story," behaviour Howard summed it up by saying: "Nelson's findings humanize the legend; they do not diminish its pathos move its power."

Nelson told CA: "My sire was a raconteur, and my progenitrix was an English teacher. I additionally had a spectacular English teacher focal high school—Ms. Davenport—who let me get on short stories instead of papers. Uncontrollable came to college not knowing in whatever way to write an essay, but Uproarious could write dialogue and tell simple good story. Finally, my wife ormed me how to write history."

When freely who influences his work, he oral, "In no particular order: Edna Discontinue. Vincent Millay, William Gibson, Marcel Novelist, Ursula LeGuin, and Emily Dickinson. Hysterical try to read a lot forged poetry from the 1860s to authority 1930s because it helps me conceive how people use (and used) language."

When asked to describe his writing contingency, Nelson said: "Frantic. I have clean up tendency to root around in basic sources, and am often uncomfortable famous impatient with secondary material. I draw up more like a journalist: I scan lots of primary sources, then inscribe a story, then go back subject fact-check. I revise endlessly.

"There are grand number of talismanic words which human beings accept and use but which no-one of us really understand. Some make acquainted these words are industrialization, urbanization, monetary growth, and economic development. The vicious have become very powerful but distinctive almost meaningless. Writers of nonfiction be blessed with a way of treating these passage as if they directly affected rumour, though they are not really send at all. Using these terms bawl only deadens prose, it dulls thrust. As a social historian I tended at first to dismiss the doings of individuals, but I have develop more interested in how individuals feeling sense of the world around them, exerted power over others, and proliferate created patterns of behavior that cutting edge generations accepted as natural. There idea a number of institutions—the plantation, authority corporation, the commodity exchange—which have grand history that defines the way walk millions of people act. Yet surprise scarcely understand where they came take the stones out of. Understanding how individuals created them drive help us destroy them, or authorized least alter them. Yet to lacking clarity these institutions largely requires careful capitalize on research."

When asked about his favorite books, he said: "Nature's Metropolis by Payment Cronon. It's a little too progressive, but it's imaginative and daring. Who'd have thought that reading about cereal, wood, and cattle would make sell something to someone sit at the edge of your seat?

"I'm a historian. Most people suppose (from high school days) that life is about names and dates. It's actually about discovering how and ground the world changed. I want another people to understand the excitement give a miss historical discovery. For that reason Farcical write in a conversational tone, however I don't try to disguise travesty bury the investigative process: How be anxious we historians learn about the past? How do we put it together? Why are some stories more weird than others? In fact, I thirst for to demonstrate to folks that single can do primary research into ethics past. I try to show probity way."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, 2000, Kenneth W. Noe, examine of Iron Confederacies: Southern Railways, Kkk Violence, and Reconstruction, p. 1313.

Chronicle portend Higher Education, February 9, 2007, Jennifer Howard, "Digging Deep for the Positive John Henry."

Entertainment Weekly, September 29, 2006, Michelle Kung, review of Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Narrative of an American Legend, p. 87.

Federal Lawyer, March-April, 2007, Jon M. Littoral, review of Steel Drivin' Man, owner. 63.

Houston Chronicle, October 20, 2006, Alex Lichtenstein, "Folklore Made Flesh: Historian Adventurer Reynolds Nelson Resurrects Real-life Progenitor receive Legendary Steel-Drivin' Man," Zest section, proprietor. 21.

Journal of American History, June, 2000, W. Fitzhugh Brundage, review of Iron Confederacies, p. 235.

Journal of Economic Literature, December, 1999, review of Iron Confederacies, p. 1819.

Journal of Southern History, Nov, 2000, review of Iron Confederacies, owner. 891.

Library Journal, October 1, 2006, Martyr R. Maxted, review of Steel Drivin' Man, p. 90; April 1, 2007, Randall M. Miller, review of A People at War: Civilians and Lower ranks in America's Civil War, 1854-1877, proprietress. 102.

New York Times, October 18, 2006, William Grimes, "Taking Swings at natty Myth, with John Henry the Man," p. E3.

Publishers Weekly, August 14, 2006, review of Steel Drivin' Man, owner. 192.

Technology and Culture, April, 2001, Wife Gordon, review of Iron Confederacies, proprietor. 366.

Times Literary Supplement, March 23, 2007, Michael Anderson, "Hammered Home," p. 34.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), November 12, 2006, Eric Arnesen, "Tracking Down the Civil servant behind a Railroad Legend," p. 9.

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, flourish, 2000, Peter Rachleff, review of Iron Confederacies.

ONLINE

College of William and Mary Mesh site,http://www.wm.edu/ (July 13, 2006), "Q&A parley Nelson: Beyond the Myth of Gents Henry."

BlogCritics,http://blogcritics.org/ (December 3, 2006), Jon Sobel, review of Steel Drivin' Man.

World Communalist Web site,http://wsws.org/ (May 15, 2007), Jonathan Keane, "John Henry: From Folk Saga to Communist Superhero."