Kelman's first book,
A River and Its City (
University of California Press, 2003; paperback 2006), is an
environmental history of the city of
New Orleans, especially focusing on the city's uneasy relationship with the
Mississippi River.
A River and Its City won the 2004 Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize, awarded annually "to the publication that has made the most significant contribution to the study of
vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes of North America." His second book,
A Misplaced Massacre (Harvard University Press, 2013), explores the struggles over how the notorious
Sand Creek massacre of 1864 should be remembered, beginning in the immediate aftermath of the violence and continuing through the opening of the
Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. Through archival research and oral history interviews, Kelman documents how
National Park Service employees, local landowners, and descendants of victims of the Sand Creek massacre worked together to develop an appropriate memorial for the historic site.
A Misplaced Massacre has been reviewed extensively. The title of the work was derived from Kelman's own realization that the descendants' claim for the location of the massacre, rather than himself, were correct. This was the result of a river having moved over the course of roughly 150 years. His most recent book, with artist
Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, is a non-fiction
graphic novel entitled
Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War (
Hill & Wang, 2015). ==Other work==