Scott Nelson is the Georgia Athletic Association Professor of History at UGA. His 2006 book Steel Drivin’ Man, about the legend of John Henry won four national awards including the Curti Prize for best book in US history. His latest book, Oceans of Grain compares conflicts over westward expansion in the United States to conflicts over Russian expansion into the Black Sea. Completed in 2021, it predicted continued Russian violence in Ukraine. It was published two days before Putin’s invasion. It has been featured on BBC News, CBC News, NPR, and received rave reviews in the Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and the New York Review of Books. It has already been translated into Chinese, Portuguese, and Turkish. Japanese and Russian translations are in the works.
