Charles C. Mann (born 1955) is an American journalist and author, specializing in scientific topics. In 2006 his book ''
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus'' won the
National Academies Communication Award The National Academies Communication Award was an annual prize bestowed in recognition of creative works that help the public understand topics in science, engineering or medicine. The awards were established in 2003 and administered by the Keck Fut ...
for best book of the year. He is the coauthor of four books, and contributing editor for ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
'', ''
The Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', and ''
Wired''.
Biography
Mann was born in 1955 and graduated from
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
in 1976.
Mann has written for ''
Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...
'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''
Smithsonian'', ''
Technology Review
''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...
'', ''
Vanity Fair'', and ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''.
In 2005 he wrote ''
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus'', followed in 2011 by ''
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created''. He served as a judge for the
PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award in 2012. He as also written for the TV series ''
Law & Order
''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment, launching the '' Law & Order'' franchise.
''Law & Order'' aired its entire run on NBC, premiering on ...
''.
He is a three-time
National Magazine Award
The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...
finalist and a recipient of writing awards from the
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
, the
American Institute of Physics, the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is an American philanthropic nonprofit organization. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., then-president and chief executive officer of General Motors.
The Sloan Foundation makes grants to support or ...
, and the
Lannan Foundation
The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...
.
He lives in
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst () is a New England town, town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,263, making it the highest populated municipality in Hampshire County (althoug ...
with his wife and children.
In 2018, Mann published ''The Wizard and the Prophet'', which details two competing theories about the future of
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
,
population
Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...
, and the
environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
. The titular "wizard" Mann refers to is
Norman Borlaug, the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
winner credited with developing the
Green Revolution and saving one billion people from starvation. Mann refers to
William Vogt, an early proponent of population control, as the "prophet".
Bibliography
Books written or co-written by Mann
* (with Robert P. Crease) ''The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics'', 1st ed., New York: Macmillan, 1986; rev. ed., New Brunswick, NJ:Rutgers University Press, 1996
* (with Mark L. Plummer) ''The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine, and 100 Years of Rampant Competition'', New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991
* (With Mark L. Plummer) ''Noah’s Choice: The Future of Endangered Species'', 1995
* (With David H. Freedman) ''@ Large: The Strange Case of the World's Biggest Internet Invasion'', 1997
* ''
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus'', New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005
* ''
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created'',
Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
, 2011
* ''1493 for Young People: From Columbus's Voyage to Globalization'',
Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press is an independent American publishing company. Based in New York City, the company was founded by Dan Simon in 1995, after establishing Four Walls Eight Windows in 1984 as an imprint at Writers and Readers, and then incorpora ...
, 2015.
*
Selected articles by Mann
* "Our Good Earth: The Future Rests on the Soil Beneath Our Feet; Can We Save It?", ''National Geographic'', September 2008, pp. 80–107.
*
The Birth of Religion, ''National Geographic'', June 2011, pp. 34–59.
*
State of the Species: Does Success Spell Doom for ''Homo sapiens''?, ''Orion'', November/December 2012.
*
*
[Online version is titled "Can Planet Earth feed 10 billion people?".]
Reviews of books by Mann
*
* Review of ''1491'' and ''1493''.
*
References
External links
"An interview with Charles C. Mann"at BookBrowse
*
1955 births
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
American non-fiction environmental writers
The Atlantic (magazine) people
Living people
Writers about globalization
{{US-journalist-1950s-stub