Nashville: An American Self Portrait captures the essence of the city at a pivotal time in its history. The year 2000 was a period of signal events: a presidential primary season with two Nashvillians seeking the nomination; a fall run for the White House that Democrat Al Gore won at the ballot box yet lost in the electoral college; the 75th anniversary of the Grand Ole Opry; a farewell crusade by the Reverend Billy Graham; the 22nd decennial census of the nation’s (and Nashville’s) population, revealing a striking new profile of the city; a dramatic shift from home-owned to outsider-owned financial and commercial institutions; the near-collapse of the state’s lawmaking authority in the final years of the old century, and the contrasting rise of Metro government in the same decade; and a stunning Super Bowl season for the brand new, Nashville-based Tennessee Titans. Created by more than 100 Nashvillians and others with a connection to the city—writers, editors, photographers, and artists—Nashville brings into sharp focus the principal players and episodes of modern politics, religion, economics, and popular culture in this quaint and thriving pocket of the American heartland.
Tom Wood is a journalist and sometime historian based in Nashville, Tennessee, which is his hometown and the subject of much of his writing over the years. But along with an abiding curiosity about all aspects of the city's past and present, he has also developed interests and expertise in a range of other subjects related to the Holocaust, the history of U.S. military aviation, the development of modern intelligence and counterterrorism efforts, irregular warfare by Confederate forces during the American Civil War, U.S. business history, European Union affairs and other fields.
His books include Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust (Wiley, 1994; with Stanislaw M. Jankowski), a biography of "Righteous Gentile" Jan Karski (1914-2000), who risked his life in 1942 to bear witness to the unfolding extermination of Poland's Jews and to carry news of the Shoah to the West. The Karski book sold over 10,000 copies and received positive reviews throughout the English-speaking world and in Germany, where it has appeared in three different translated editions. Wood made broadcast media appearances related to the book on CNN, National Public Radio, the BBC World Service), the Australian Broadcasting Co. and German and Polish national television, among other outlets.
Together with Nashville author John Egerton, Wood conceived and edited the multi-author publication Nashville: An American Self-Portrait in 2001. Participating authors in this collection of essays and photographs included David Halberstam, Roy Blount Jr., Bruce Feiler, Jean Bethke Elshtain and Lamar Alexander, as well as legendary sportswriter Fred Russell (the book contains his last published work). Wood secured funding for the project from a venture capital firm, and he recruited and developed chapter concepts with a majority of the authors involved. Southern Living magazine hailed it as "a monumental undertaking" and "a glorious tribute."
Among several book projects Wood has been developing in recent years is a biography of Nashville-born Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, an air power pioneer who was a top candidate to lead the Allied invasion of Europe until his untimely death in 1943.
Wood has been a reporter and editor for locally owned news organization SouthComm Inc. and its predecessors since 2005. He has previously reported for The New York Times (both domestically and internationally), The Wall Street Journal and many other news outlets, and he has served as editor of a national trade publication as well as a pair of city magazines.
He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and holds an M.Phil. in European Studies from the University of Cambridge. His Cambridge master's thesis on late 19th-century "wars on terror" against anarchist violence, submitted in 2002, has been cited by scholars researching the origins of modern counterterrorism practices.
Wood lives in Nashville with his wife, fellow author Nicki Pendleton Wood, and their daughter.
