Charles Mann

American journalist and author of 1491 and 1493 — landmark popular histories that transformed understanding of pre-Columbian Americas and the Columbian Exchange.

Rehabilitating pre-Columbian complexity: 1491 synthesized recent archaeological and anthropological research to show that the Americas before Columbus were far more populous, sophisticated, and environmentally managed than previously assumed. 1493 traced the global ecological and economic consequences of the Columbian Exchange — how New World crops (maize, potato) and diseases (syphilis) reshaped the Old World, and how Old World diseases, animals, and plants transformed the New World. Both books combine rigorous research with narrative journalism.