Customer Reviews

Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: the Untold Story of an American Legend

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I am a Civil War aficionado, I had rarely read about what happened directly after the war. However, this book has changed my reading habits!!

From the time I was a child, I had a special affection for the John Henry songs and "legends". Well, I had no idea he was REAL-- flesh and blood! This book not only brought him alive for me, but the research and presentation was EXQUISITE. Dr Nelson -- in my eyes you have done a tremendous job of bringing alive not only John Henry, but the terrible wrongs done to thousands of African-American freedmen (and women) in Richmond, by the corrupt "Freedman's Bureau".

By reading this book, in my mind's eye AND ear, I could see the men and women who toiled in the often brutal conditions, to dig tunnels and build track. I could almost hear the weird and wonderful chants that helped lay the track and ease the brutal conditions and physical pain that these people, mostly (wrongfully convicted in many cases) convicts endured, usually until they dropped dead from the years of toil and/or silicosis.

Could that photograph of a John Henry (page 46) in Bealton VA (not that far from Richmond) really be him? Truth is stranger than fiction - perhaps we ARE looking into his smiling face. And one question I have-- how does the Smithsonian REALLY know which bones are his? (maybe I missed something)

The author's narrative, interspersed with highly pertinent photographs AND song verse kept me riveted to this very complex and highly interesting book. Although to some readers the book may seem to start out slow -- it's like a steam train -- it eventually picks up speed and keeps one fascinated.

The book's narrative gives great detail to that era in Richmond that John Henry lived, as well as the "white house" by the tracks (Federal Penitentiary where so many of these Freedmen and women were wrongfully incarcerated) and as it winds past John Henry the individual, it reveals the highly pertinent correlation with those railroad songs handed down by word-of-mouth and then collected and sung by the like of people such as Carl Sandburg, folk singer as well as poet, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives.

The book then shows how the John Henry story and ballads found their way into art, and life as well - expressed in the artwork and subject matter in Marvel Comix; expressed in the song and art of striking workers, the WPA, Karl Marx, the Communists and Socialists in America in the 1930's, the "radical and liberals of the 1940's", the Black Worker Protest Songs -- and more.

Of great interest also was the way the South incorporated (and the way it did NOT incorporate) black history regarding John Henry and other related Afro-American folk heroes and song into its school textbooks and library books back in the 40's and 50's.

I borrowed this book from the library -- but I was so impressed with it that I bought one for myself. I want to do my own research (in fact I'm playing some CD samples from Amazon right now, having to do with John Henry and word of mouth folk songs) on these ballads, and those who sang them as well as those who still sing them today.

I cannot find any fault with this book. The fact that I am now hooked on the John Henry ballad and all the history (past AND present) that goes with it is proof enough of this book's influence.

Does Dr. Nelson have a web site that relates to this book? I guess that's one more bit of research that I will undertake!! (I hope he does!)

PS - the "Gandy Dancer's Gal" on page 131 is a tremendous summation on canvas, of the strength and hardships, as well as the joys that were part of these track workers' lives.

And on my occasional travels on AMTRAK's Capitol Limited, when the train slowly winds thru some of those hand-hewn tunnels and past rough old forest growth, I look for the marks of 19th century tools on the rocks, and think back on those days of almost 150 years ago, when these men (and some women) worked side by side, sweating, hurting, working to their deaths, laboring for the railroad.

This book offers a great introduction into what and how a real historian does history. Who would guess that an old dump can be more informative than a documentary movie? The 'truth' about the real John Henry is only a hook for demonstrating the confusion, guess work, and desire to tell an acceptable story that is history. This very readable little book could go along way to breaking the belief of many that all you need to understand history is a good textbook.

As someone interested in history, the South, civil rights, and folk songs, I loved this book. The author starts by tracking down evidence to propose a candidate for the original John Henry who inspired the song. The author then fills in the details of what John Henry's life after arrest was probably like based on court, prison, and railroad records. Certainly, this part is speculative, as some reviewers have complained, but there is no reason a priori to expect that John Henry's experiences were significantly different from the norm. Besides, the discussion of the horrifying conditions the railroad builders and workers endured is eye-opening. Much of the latter portion of the book discusses how the song spread and the meaning it had at different times and to different groups. The author obviously did extensive research and creates a fascinating portrait of how a song mutates to suit current times.

Scott Nelson's Steel Drivin' Man is a wonderful story about the author's intriguing search for the real man behind the American folk hero John Henry. His search leads him down southern backroads, through forgotten railroad tunnels, and to some of the deeper secrets of American history. This is both a well-written personal narrative and a meticulously researched and engaging history of the man and the songs he inspired. Nelson unravels the mystery of John Henry's life and death, and powerfully explains how the folk song that recounted John Henry's battle with the steam drill came to have such an important place in American folklore (Did any of us NOT learn a version of the John Henry song in school?)Though John Henry's story was sad, his song became an inspiration to workers, folksingers, and schoolchildren alike, and Nelson writes powerfully of the ways that the song brings us together despite the differences that could divide us. He is a beautiful writer and a trained historian and it's clear that he researched this book diligently. This book is about many different things, but anyone interested in a great American story, or railroads, or folk music, or American labor history will love this book.

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 are the real strengths of the book.

The author is not a folklorist and spends little time talking about the exact evolution of the songs or their dissemination. That might matter to a folklorist like myself, but will not appear at all to be a deficiency to other readers. He writes clearly, with interest, and pays attention to aspects of the labor and racial history that most people are unaware of.

More than that, in sketching the 20th Century history of the song he provides a rather clear picture of the origins of the "folk music" milieu that I haven't seen written down anywhere else, only suggested in discussions among scholars. He also touches on the changes in the John Henry image as it was taken up by the Stalinized Communist Party of the 1930s and shows us how this John Henry was an ancestor of Superman and similar comic book superheroes.

The book is much more entertaining and intriguing than my review suggests. Especially at the remaindered prices, this book is a great deal. Read, learn, and enjoy

I hate spoilers, so it was hard to write one myself but there's no other way - the book is about finding out who John Henry was and he doesn't find out. And not in the good 'gets you thinking' sort of way. He basically says he found out, he just didn't. He did find out that around the time the legend of John Henry seems to have appeared there was at least one black man named John Henry working on the railroad. The book is written as if this was a coup and the final word. It's a solid book in a lot of ways, it just has the feel of a research project that didn't work out but too much time had been spent on to abandon. If you want to know a little about railroad work gangs in the reconstruction era this is a nice book. If you want to know whether John Henry from the song was a real person and if so who this won't help.

I really liked this book. Most Americans will remember the story of John Henry from their youth, but most will also be surprised that he was an actual flesh-and-blood person. The author brings the story to life, and, even though I never imagined I'd read a whole book on this subjct, I found myself carried along. It's a terrific book and I really recommend it.

This book will probably be considered a standard reference for quite some time regarding the historicity of John Henry and for giving a short overview of the various cultural-political strains that have contributed to the dissemination and variety of the "John Henry" songs. Despite criticism of Nelson by Garst, Nelson's methodology is the superior of the two, and all you need to do to confirm that is to see how Garst's objections(found on various sites including a review right here on Amazon)have been scaled back by Garst himself in the face of pointed criticism by others. Nelson's knowledge of nineteenth-centry railroad technology shines throughout the book, and his connecting the early blues with trackliners' songs deserves more attention in the future. All in all, this book is to be recommended, and it is no surprise (or fluke) that it has garnered numerous awards. I only wish that Oxford University Press would issue paperbacks like this and Lawrence Levine's Black Culture and Black Consciousness (a classic if there ever was one) with surdier covers--covers that didn't curl and edges that didn't fray and split.

Race relations are a complex issue, this book was an interesting survey of the issue, following an American Legend how it was molded and re-molded to fit the view of the teller at the time.

The book isn't a novel, and possible starts a little slow but I felt picked up really well by the middle of the book.

Overall a great history book that looks at history in a interesting way.

This book is one of the most captivating I have ever read, Fiction or Non-Fiction.

It tells a sweeping epic of a man who came from relative anonymity to become part of the living fabric, the unique story, of this great nation.

His story is filled with great sorrow and injustice, but fittingly ends with the idea that he could "win" no matter what.

It is a fitting allegory for an entire nation that now espouses those beliefs, and in fact, regards them as distinctively American!