Michael Charles Nelson (born June 11, 1949) is an American political scientist, noted for his work on the Presidency, Southern Politics, and elections. Currently, he is the Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College, a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and a Fellow at Southern Methodist University’s Center for Presidential History. Nelson is an award winning writer and editor, winning prestigious awards such as the American Political Science Association (APSA) 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 (University Press of Kansas), 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 (2009).
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.
Nelson was an Assistant Professor (1979-1984) and then Associate Professor (1984-1991) 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 has also a Compton Visiting Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia (2010), and Senior Fellow at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia since 2007.
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, and other publishing sources.
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, and Baltimore Sun, and websites such as prospect.org, insidehighered.com, and History News Network (hnn.us). 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 Sewanee 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.
In 2015, the APSA gave Nelson the Richard E. Neustadt Award for the Outstanding book on the Presidency and Executive Politics published during the previous year for Resilient America: Electing Nixon in 1968, Channeling Dissent, and Dividing Government (University Press of Kansas).
Nelson won 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 (2009).
Clarence Day Dean‟s Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity, Rhodes College, 2001.
Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching, Vanderbilt University, 1989.
Jeffrey Nordhaus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in the College of Arts and Sciences, Vanderbilt University, 1987.
ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for music journalism and A.D. Emmart Prize for writing in the humanities for “How the Baltimore Symphony Got To Be So Good,” Baltimore, Vol. 71, No. 9 (September 1978), pp. 70-77. Reprinted in the magazine‟s eightieth anniversary issue (October 1987), pp. 110-11, 142-43.
Senior Contributing Editor and Book Editor of the Cook Political Report, 2015-Present
Resilient America: Electing Nixon in 1968, Channeling Dissent, and Dividing Government (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, forthcoming Spring 2014).
41: Inside the George H.W. Bush Presidency, coeditor with Barbara A. Perry (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, forthcoming 2014).
The Elections of 2012, editor (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2014).
Debating Reform: Conflicting Perspectives on How to Fix the American Political System, with Richard J. Ellis (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2010, 2014).
The Presidency and the Political System, editor (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2014).
Guide to the Presidency and the Executive Branch 4th ed., editor (Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 1988, 1996, 2003, 2008, 2013).
Governing at Home: The White House and Domestic Policymaking, coeditor with Russell L. Riley (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011).
The President’s Words: Speeches and Speechwriting in the Modern White House, coeditor with Russell L. Riley (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2010).
Debating the Presidency: Conflicting Perspectives on the American Executive, coeditor with Richard J. Ellis (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2006, 2010).
The Elections of 2008, editor (Washington, D.C: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2010).
The Evolving Presidency: Addresses, Cases, Letters, Reports, Resolutions, Essays, Transcripts, and Other Landmark Documents, 1787-2008 3rd ed., editor (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1998, 2004, 2008).
The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776-2002 5th ed., with Sidney M. Milkis (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1990, 1994, 1999, 2003, 2008 Chinese edition, 2008).
How the South Joined the Gambling Nation: The Politics of State Policy Innovation, with John Mason (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007).
The Elections of 2004, editor (Washington, D.C: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2005).
The Elections of 2000, editor. (Washington, D.C: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2001).
Governing Gambling: Politics and Policy in State, Tribe, and Nation, with John Mason (Washington: Century Foundation/Brookings Institution, 2001).
Alive at the Core: Exemplary Approaches to General Education in the Humanities, with associates (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000).
Celebrating the Humanities: A Half-Century of the Search Course at Rhodes College, editor (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 1996, 1998).
The Elections of 1996, editor (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1997).
The Elections of 1992, editor. (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1993).
Historic Documents on Presidential Elections 1787-1988, editor (Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 1992).
The Elections of 1988, editor (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1989).
A Heartbeat Away (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1988).
Presidential Selection, coeditor with Alexander Heard (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1987).
The Elections of 1984, editor (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1985).
Presidents, Politics and Policy, with Erwin C. Hargrove (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press and New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984).
The Culture of Bureaucracy, coeditor with Charles Peters (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979).
