Read Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: the Untold Story of an American Legend by Scott Reynolds Nelson Online
^ Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: the Untold Story of an American Legend ✓ PDF Download by * Scott Reynolds Nelson eBook or Kindle ePUB Online free. Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: the Untold Story of an American Legend Attractively illustrated with numerous images, Steel Drivin' Man offers a marvelous portrait of a beloved folk song--and a true American legend.. We see how the American Communist Party appropriated the image of John Henry as the idealized American worker, and even how John Henry became the precursor of such comic book super heroes as Superman or Captain America. Equally important, Nelson masterfully captures the life of the ballad of John Henry, tracing the song's evolution from the f
| Title | : | Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: the Untold Story of an American Legend |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.74 (895 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0195300106 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-11-12 |
| Language | : | English |
Under discriminatory Black Codes, Henry was sentenced to 10 years in the Virginia Penitentiary and put to work building the C&O Railroad. All rights reserved. It's the story of fatal racism in the postbellum South. There, at the Lewis Tunnel, Henry and other prisoners worked alongside steam-powered drills, and at least 300 of them died. 25 b&w illus. This slender book is many-layered. It's Nelson's story of piecing together the biography of the real John Henry, and rarely is the tale of hours logged in archives so interesting. Folklorists have long thought John Henry to be mythical, but while researching railroad work songs, historian Nelson, of the College of William and Mary, discovered that Henry was a real person—a short black 19-year-old from New Jersey who was convicted of theft in a Virginia court in 1866. . This is a remarkable work of scholarship and a riveting story. And it's the story of
"Fascinating History" according to Matthew Sabatella. In "Steel Drivin' Man" (2008), Scott Reynolds Nelson solves many of the mysteries surrounding the man at the center of the most recorded folk song in American history - John Henry. Using secondary literature and a multitude of primary sources, including railroad. Good about research on Henry and Railroad not much on song I enjoyed reading this book for its delineation of the history of reconstruction Virginia, its investigation of who John Henry was and what tunnel he really dug or died in, and for its picture of the history of railroad building in the Appalachian South. These a. A very valuable contribution to the understanding of Reconstruction in Burl S. A very valuable contribution to the understanding of Reconstruction in the south. John Henry was a real person, not a myth.
Attractively illustrated with numerous images, Steel Drivin' Man offers a marvelous portrait of a beloved folk song--and a true American legend.. We see how the American Communist Party appropriated the image of John Henry as the idealized American worker, and even how John Henry became the precursor of such comic book super heroes as Superman or Captain America. Equally important, Nelson masterfully captures the life of the ballad of John Henry, tracing the song's evolution from the first printed score by blues legend W. Nelson even confirms the legendary contest between John Henry and the steam drill (there was indeed a steam drill used to dig the Lewis Tunnel and the convicts in fact drilled faster). C. But for over a century, no one knew who the original John Henry was--or even if there was a real John Henry. Handy, to Carl Sandburg's use of the ballad to become the first "folk singer," to the upbeat version by Tennessee Ernie Ford. In Steel Drivin' Man, Scott Reynolds Nelson recounts the true story of the man behind the iconic American hero, telling the poignant tale of a young Virginia convict who died working on one of the most dangerous enterprises of the time, the first rail route through the Appalachian Mountains. Using census data, penitentiary reports, and railroad company reports, Nelson reveals how John Henry, victimized by Virginia's notorious Black Codes,
Scott Reynolds Nelson is Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary. The author of Iron Confederacies: Southern Railways, Klan Violence, and Reconstruction, he has served as a consultant on the forthcoming PBS documentary on John Henry.
Download Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: the Untold Story of an American Legend
Download as PDF : Click Here
Download as DOC : Click Here
Download as RTF : Click Here