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 Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

'', ''

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 ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

''.

Biography

Mann was born in 1955 and graduated from Amherst College in 1976. Mann has written for '' Fortune'', ''

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 d ...

'', '' 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''. He is a three-time National Magazine Award 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 aca ...

, the

American Institute of Physics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...

, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 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 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 t ...

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. The titular "wizard" Mann refers to is

Norman Borlaug Norman Ernest Borlaug (; March 25, 1914September 12, 2009) was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple ...

, 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 Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

winner credited with developing the

Green Revolution The Green Revolution, also known as the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period of technology transfer initiatives that saw greatly increased crop yields and agricultural production. These changes in agriculture began in developed countrie ...

and saving one billion people from starvation. Mann refers to

William Vogt William Vogt (15 May 1902 – 11 July 1968) was an American ecologist and ornithologist, with a strong interest in both the carrying capacity and population control. He was the author of best-seller ''Road to Survival'' (1948), National Direc ...

, 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, 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