As you’ll recall from these “hammer songs,” John Henry was a steel-drivin’ man who, at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, challenged a steam drill to a tunnel-carving contest, beat the ...

In almost 200 folk songs, John Henry drives steel into the Allegheny Mountains for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad in a race against a steam drill: “John Henry, O John Henry, Blood am runnin’ red!

John Henry represented the 1870s construction trade known as the “steel driver,” who swung 10-pound sledgehammers to drill through the Big Bend Mountain.

John Henry may lay down 15 feet to the steam drill’s nine. But even if he doesn’t drive so hard that he breaks his poor heart, Steam Drill 2.0 is always on the way; John Henry 2.0 is not.

Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend Scott Reynolds Nelson, . . Oxford Univ., $25 (214pp) ISBN 978-0-19-530010-9 ...

The steel driving man, JOHN HENRY. And his disruptive band of international folklore legends, THE STATESMEN." The film will be directed by Jake Kasdan, who worked with Johnson on 2017's Jumanji ...

Register-Herald/File photosStacy Ford, a member of the John Henry Days Committee and Historical Society, said 3,000 to 4,000 people are expected to attend the 3-day event.

John Henry went on his way. He had heard that any man good with a hammer could find work building the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad through West Virginia. That was where he had been going when he st… ...

In folklore the legend that started it all--without which The Terminator and A.I. wouldn't exist--is of course the story of John Henry, the man who beat the drill through the mountain, winning the ...

The John Henry principle: Eventually, the steam drill wins Eugene Volokh | 7.14.2017 8:55 PM Steam drills—driverless cars—and much more to come, I hope and fear.

In folklore the legend that started it all—without which The Terminator and A.I. wouldn't exist—is of course the story of John Henry, the man who beat the drill through the mountain, winning ...