Michael Nelson (political scientist)


Michael Nelson is an American political scientist, noted for his work on the Presidency and elections. He is a Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College and a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.

Early life

Nelson was born and raised in New Milford, New Jersey. He studied at the College of William and Mary and graduated in 1971 with a BA. Afterward, he received both his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University.

Career

Nelson was an Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University. He was appointed Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College in 1991 and has been Fulmer Professor of Political Science there since 2005. He was a Compton Visiting Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia and has been a Senior Fellow at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia since 2007. In 2018, he became a contributing editor and columnist for the Daily Memphian and the political analyst for WMC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Memphis.
Nelson has published more than twenty-five books on the presidency, elections, bureaucracy, public policy, southern politics, and liberal education. More than fifty of his articles have been reprinted in books of political science, history, sociology, sports, music, and English composition. He has been published by Alfred A. Knopf, Johns Hopkins University Press, Cornell University Press, Duke University Press, the University Press of Kansas, Louisiana State University Press, Vanderbilt University Press, CQ Press, University of Virginia Press, and other publishing sources.
Among the scholarly journals Nelson has published articles in are the Journal of Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Policy History, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Congress and the Presidency, Popular Music and Society, and Virginia Quarterly Review.
In addition to his articles on political topics, Nelson has written lengthy articles about Charles Dickens, Frank Sinatra, Garrison Keillor, C. S. Lewis, Jonathan Edwards, Stephen L. Carter, Ward Just, the military academies, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, liberal education, baseball, football, and music. A former writer-editor with the Washington Monthly and a frequent contributor to the Claremont Review of Books, he has published articles in a number of popular magazines, including the Weekly Standard, Newsweek, Saturday Review, Legal Affairs, and the American Prospect. He also has written articles for newspapers such as the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Washington Post, USA Today and Baltimore Sun, and websites such as Politico and insidehighered.com. He wrote frequently for the Review section of the Chronicle of Higher Education, and was a blogger for its “Brainstorm” web site during the 2008 election.
Nelson created and served as editor of the Interpreting American Politics book series for Johns Hopkins University Press. He also created and, with president John L. McCardell, edits the American Presidential Elections book series for the University Press of Kansas. He was the political analyst for WMC-TV in Memphis for fourteen years and was the host of “Informed Sources” on Memphis’s public television station, WKNO-TV.
Nelson has won the 2015 American Political Science Association Richard E. Neustadt Award for the Outstanding book on the Presidency and Executive Politics published during the previous year for his book Resilient America: Electing Nixon in 1968, Channeling Dissent, and Dividing Government, and the V.O. Key Award for Outstanding Book on Southern Politics for How the South Joined the Gambling Nation: The Politics of State Policy Innovation.

Awards