Showing results by author "Charles Mann" in All Categories

Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus' landing had crossed the Bering Strait 12,000 years ago; existed mainly in small nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas were, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last 30 years proving these and many other long-held assumptions wrong.

More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, he ended that separation at a stroke. Driven by the economic goal of establishing trade with China, he accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European vessels carried thousands of species to new homes across the oceans.

The High Republic authors share unmissable short stories that bridge Phases, resolve mysteries, and offer tantalizing hints of what is to come. Rejoin the adventures of the Jedi and Padawans, Pathfinders and Path members, heroes and villains ahead of the launch of Phase III.

A companion book for young listeners based on 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, the groundbreaking best seller by Charles C. Mann.

How did the lowly potato plant feed the poor across Europe and then cause the deaths of millions? How did the rubber plant enable industrialization? What is the connection between malaria, slavery, and the outcome of the American Revolution? How did the fabled silver mountain of 16th-century Bolivia fund economic development in the flood-prone plains of rural China and the wars of the Spanish Empire? Here is the story of how sometimes the greatest leaps also posed the greatest threats to human advancement.

In 40 years, Earth's population will reach 10 billion. Can our world support that? What kind of world will it be? Those answering these questions generally fall into two deeply divided groups - Wizards and Prophets, as Charles Mann calls them in this balanced, authoritative, nonpolemical new book. The Prophets, he explains, follow William Vogt, a founding environmentalist who believed that in using more than our planet has to give, our prosperity will lead us to ruin.

Owen Devon used to have a pretty good life. At least until a few months ago, when disaster struck his family. Now his grades are plunging and his life is spiraling out of control. To make matters worse, he's just been tagged for vandalism - and to repay the damage, he's being put to work for the crusty old owner of the local diner. But there's a lot about the old man that Owen doesn't know - and in this diner's cramped little kitchen, he's going to learn a lot more than how to cook an excellent meal....

Join Dr. Charles Ashley Mann, of Dr. Charles Ashley Mann & Associates Family Dentistry, each Sunday for Teeth Talk. Each week he’ll keep you updated on the ever-evolving world of Family Dentistry, so you can be a better-informed consumer. Dental health is essential for your overall health and there are so many innovative treatments to tell you about that can be simply life changing.