History in the Making: Ain’t Nothing but a Man

Lisa — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:28:15 -0700

After gushing about it to my husband this weekend, I was all set to write this nice, long review of Ain’t Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry, by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson (National Geographic, 2008). Then I realized the New York Times beat me to it, and did a fine job. A good thing, really; I don’t want to think about how many orders of magnitude separate the Times’ readership and mine! But here’s a few thoughts of my own to add to the mix.

In our library catalog, Ain’t Nothing but a Man gets the subject headings you’d expect: John Henry, African Americans, railroad construction workers, etc. And while readers of this book will indeed learn about the “steel-drivin’ man” behind the myth, the real narrative here is that of the primary author’s historical research process.

Those familiar with Marc Aronson’s columns in School Library Journal or other work (including his blog on SLJ) will not be surprised that he is a secondary author of this book. Aronson is committed to promoting good nonfiction for children, especially history. One of his consistent arguments is that history should not be presented to children as this dry, static body of facts. History, like science, is full of mysteries, and we are always learning new things about the past and finding new ways to interpret what we’ve found.

And that’s definitely the driving message of Ain’t Nothing but a Man. Nelson presents his findings not as a cut-and-dried summary but rather as a discovery process. He describes scouring written and oral histories for different versions of the John Henry ballad, and visiting railroad tunnels, libraries, and prisons. He discusses the hard, dusty work of poring through ancient records, the frustration of dead ends, the magic of serendipity, the need for patience and perseverance and even guesswork, and the miraculous pay-off when you find the facts to create a convincing story.

Ain’t Nothing but a Man is a perfect candidate for working into a junior high or even high school history curriculum, focusing on the railroad worker aspect or the dynamic history aspect or both. Though the reading level is grades 4ish and up, I honestly don’t think, with its sepia photographs, old-time song lyrics, and sophisticated approach to history, the appeal is going to be there for most kids—not without pushing. So, I hope that teachers do take advantage of the lessons this book offers; there’s so much fodder for discussion here, the lesson plans would practically write themselves.

Meanwhile, Colleen at Chasing Ray has written some very thoughtful reflections on how Nelson’s findings force us to reexamine our understanding of John Henry as an American legend:
“…do not give me John Henry as an American folk hero anymore. He is a truth that we all need to recognize—he is the America we all keep trying to deny.”
She has some great points; take a look.

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History in the Making: Ain’t Nothing but a Man