Beyond the Book

The article that formed the basis for this book was originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 2002.  If, after reading the extensive book excerpt and author interview at BookBrowse, you want to read more you can read the Atlantic Monthly article here.  Also of interest is an extensive review in the Washington Post Book World written by Alan Taylor, the author of American Colonies, and a professor of history at the University of California at Davis.

Did you know?
In response to the frequently asked question, "why do you have a 'pretentious' C in your name?" Charles C Mann replies, "I get asked about this a lot, occasionally in exactly those words. The answer is not very interesting. I am named after my two grandfathers. My first name is my maternal grandfather’s name. My middle name is my paternal grandfather’s name. The latter knew I wanted to write and informed me that he would be highly annoyed if his name was left out of my byline. I didn’t have the courage actually to use his name, which would have given me an unwieldy double-barreled byline. So I compromised and used his initial. There you have it. Like I said, not all that interesting.

This article was originally published in September 2005, and has been updated for the October 2006 paperback release. Click here to go to this issue.

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