“A milpa is a field, usually but not always recently cleared, in which farmers plant a dozen crops at once, including maize,… — Charles C. Mann Gardening Copy Share Image
“In the classic successional course, each suite of plants replaces its predecessor, until the arrival of the final, “climax” ecosystem, usually tall… — Charles C. Mann Gardening Copy Share Image
In 1491 the Inka ruled the greatest empire on earth. Bigger than Ming Dynasty China, bigger than Ivan the Great’s expanding Russia,… — Charles C. Mann Alliances Copy Share Image
The Paris pact was correctly described by its opponents - greens and anti-greens alike - as toothless. But it was also the… — Charles C. Mann Around the world Copy Share Image
“Drought indeed stressed the system, but the societal disintegration in the south was due not to surpassing inherent ecological limits but the… — Charles C. Mann Copy Share Image
“The Maya collapsed because they overshot the carrying capacity of their environment. They exhausted their resource base, began to die of starvation… — Charles C. Mann Copy Share Image
Prediction is a mug's game, but taking the side of water polluters has not been a winning political strategy for 50 years.… — Charles C. Mann Economic growth Copy Share Image
The queue of activists, interest groups, and ordinary people wringing their hands over what a President Donald Trump might do in office… — Charles C. Mann Donald trump Copy Share Image
“The varieties are not like islands, carefully apart,” Perales explained. “They are more like gentle hills in a landscape—you see them, they… — Charles C. Mann Copy Share Image
“export of food from Ireland during the famine: 430,000 tons of grain in 1846 and 1847, the two worst years. “The Almighty… — Charles C. Mann Copy Share Image
“all states can be parceled into four types: pluralist, in which the state is seen by its people as having moral legitimacy;… — Charles C. Mann Politics Copy Share Image
The way I think of it, economics and ecology occupy two intellectual silos, isolated from each other. Even when they do take… — Charles C. Mann Consideration Copy Share Image
“Before Columbus, Holmberg believed, both the people and the land had no real history. Stated so baldly, this notion-that the indigenous peoples… — Charles C. Mann History Copy Share Image
“More than a hundred sets of casta paintings are known. Many are beautifully crafted. Some were painted by mixed people themselves. Looking” — Charles C. Mann Copy Share Image
“Anything goes now, apparently,” Fiedel told me. “The lunatics have taken over the asylum.” — Charles C. Mann Copy Share Image
A world with a sudden limit on air travel would be tremendously different from the one we live in now. — Charles C. Mann Air Copy Share Image
“In Deloria's opinion, archaeology is mainly about easing white guilt. Determining that Indians superseded other people fits neatly into this plan. "If… — Charles C. Mann Copy Share Image
“Having grown separately for millennia, the Americas were a boundless sea of novel ideas, dreams, stories, philosophies, religions, moralities, discoveries, and all… — Charles C. Mann Dreams Copy Share Image
“Mesoamerica would deserve its place in the human pantheon if its inhabitants had only created maize, in terms of harvest weight the… — Charles C. Mann Around the world Copy Share Image
Smartphones can relay patients' data to hospital computers in a continuous stream. Doctors can alter treatment regimens remotely, instead of making patients… — Charles C. Mann Come Copy Share Image
“Chestnut was especially popular—not the imported European chestnut roasted on Manhattan street corners in the fall, but the smaller, soft-shelled, deeply sweet… — Charles C. Mann Copy Share Image
“Carrying their flints and torches, Native Americans were living in balance with Nature—but they had their thumbs on the scale. Shaped for… — Charles C. Mann Life Copy Share Image
The Japanese drive on the left side of the road. Most streets literally do not have names. — Charles C. Mann Drive Copy Share Image
“To we moderns the sensation of being in a constructed environment is so ubiquitous as to be invisible—in the cocoon of our… — Charles C. Mann Environment Copy Share Image
“Most of the salt occurred in the sediments on the swamp bottoms. To make the water potable, the Maya laid a layer… — Charles C. Mann Copy Share Image
