Michael Nelson

Michael Nelson is professor of political science at Rhodes College. A former editor of The Washington Monthly, he has published twenty books on the American presidency, national elections, and higher education. In recent years he has written articles for VQR about Abraham Lincoln, C. S. Lewis, Garrison Keilloir, Frank Sinatra, Ward Just, Stephen Carter, Robert Caro, and other subjects. More than forty of his articles have been anthologized in works of political science, history, and English composition.

Published in VQR

• Fighting for Lincoln’s Soul, Autumn 2003
• Stephen L. Carter: the Christian As Contrarian, Summer 2003
• Power Dark, Power Bright: Robert A. Caro, Robert Moses, and Lyndon B. Johnson, Winter 2003
• The Good, the Bad, and the Phony: Six Famous Historians and Their Critics, Summer 2002
• Church on Saturday Night: Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, Winter 2001
• Why the Media Love Presidents and Presidents Hate the Media, Spring 2000
• Frank Sinatra: the Loneliness of the Long Distance Singer, Autumn 1999
• Ward Just’s Washington, Spring 1998
• "One Mythology Among Many": The Spiritual Odyssey of C. S. Lewis, Autumn 1996
• C.S. Lewis and His Critics, Winter 1988
• The Washington Community Revisited, Spring 1985
• Evaluative Journalism: A New Synthesis, Summer 1982
• James David Barber and the Psychological Presidency, Autumn 1980
• The White House, Bureaucracy, and Foreign Policy: Lessons From Cambodia, Spring 1980
• Scholar-Politicians and Sheriffs, Spring 1979
• The Ultimate Commencement Speech, Winter 1979