R. A. (Reinert August) Jernberg

Reinert August Jernberg (1855–1942), often published as R. A. Jernberg, is a relatively obscure author today, but Project Gutenberg identifies him by that full name and dates and preserves his work for modern readers.

The clearest biographical detail available in the sources is his connection to the Chicago Theological Seminary. The text of A Nation in the Loom describes the book as an address delivered at his inauguration as professor in the Danish-Norwegian Department there in April 1895, showing that he worked as both a clergyman and an academic speaker.

His best-known surviving book, A Nation in the Loom: The Scandinavian Fibre in Our Social Fabric, focuses on the place of Scandinavian immigrants in American society. That makes him especially interesting to readers drawn to religious history, immigration history, and writing that captures how Scandinavian-American identity was being discussed in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century.