Campaign for the American Reader: Pg. 69: "Steel Drivin' Man"

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 a PBS documentary on John Henry.

His latest book is Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story o f an American Legend. He put the book to the "page 69 test" and came up with the following:

The word on Marshall McLuhan was this: incredibly smart and incredibly lazy. He strolled around his office narrating books to his secretary, who wrote down every word. Then if he had the time, he would edit the page proofs. This style of writing made him eminently quotable but often repetitive, contradictory, and occasionally incoherent. I can see how McLuhan, brilliant but impatient, would be inclined to come up with a “page 69” system for reading books. Read page 69 carefully, and then you can talk about the style of exposition, the author’s tone, etc. etc. without actually having to read the darn thing. Then off to the next book. Cocktails. Repeat.

It would take McLuhan a bit more time to listen to the ballad of John Henry. But if he could hear the tragedy in the song, then he wouldn’t have to read a single word. The book lets you hear about the tragedy in the ballad, and it tells you where the bodies are buried.

A page 69 analysis of Steel Drivin’ Man lets you go to the heart of the book. On that page I describe how Virginia’s penitentiary shipped John Henry to the Chesapeake & Ohio railway tunnel in 1869. I then describe how decades later the prison warden regretted having sent so many convicts to die there. The rest of the page is background, explaining how Reconstruction in Virginia allowed railway baron C.P. Huntington to seize the C&O without spending a nickel, and why a bargain he struck then compelled him to drill railway tunnels with convicts, steam drills, and dynamite even if it killed everyone involved. Within a dozen years, it did kill nearly everyone involved. John Henry and two hundred other men died fighting a steam drill in a race to the bottom.

But page 69 will not tell you why I puzzled over the man behind the legend, how I found out who he really was, or why a song about the death of a railroad convict became America’s most famous folk song. That page won’t tell you why the song was beloved by black workers, miners, Communists, Klansmen, cartoonists, and Carl Sandburg. If McLuhan were alive today I would tell him to read the more lyrical pages, say 46, 95-96, 142, or the last two pages. Then, off to cocktails.

Thanks to Scott for the input.

Read an excerpt from Steel Drivin' Man.

Among the praise for Steel Drivin’ Man:

"What Mr. Nelson proves is the undying power of the John Henry myth, which reduces almost to a pinpoint the historical figure he resurrects from the archives.... He is a fascinating guide to the world of Southern railroads and the grim landscape of Reconstruction."
--William Grimes, New York Times

"Over the last century, the legend of macho steelworker John Henry with his ''two twenty pound hammers'' has been appropriated by chain gangs, Communist radicals, and Johnny Cash. The real Henry, usually envisioned as a bulky strongman, was in fact a 5' 1'' convict from Elizabeth, N.J., as Scott Reynolds Nelson shows in his slim, meticulously researched [book]. He sifts through prison records, railroad progress reports, and census data--as well as songs and art--to create a multilayered portrait of a poor teen, his tragic run-ins with racist Black Codes laws (and his likely wrongful conviction), and his unexpected journey to iconhood."
--Michelle Kung, Entertainment Weekly

"A remarkable work of scholarship and a riveting story.... It's the story of fatal racism in the postbellum South. And it's the story of work songs, songs that not only turned Henry into a folk hero but, in reminding workers to slow down or die, were a tool of resistance and protest."
-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Written at the crossroads where American myth and reality intersect, Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, The Untold Story of an American Legend is a tribute and requiem to the real steel drivin' men who built this country."
--Bruce Springsteen

"Nelson is a magnificent writer, and he tells a story as great and terrible as any.... Steel Drivin' Man is a rarity among history books in that it is a concise one. It's like John Henry: It's short, and it does its job well."
--Atlanta Journal-Constitution