Synopses & Reviews
From the bestselling, award-winning author of 1491 and 1493 — an incisive portrait of the two little-known twentieth-century environmental scientists, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt, who laid the groundwork for how people in the twenty-first century will choose to live in tomorrow’s world.
In forty years, Earth’s population will reach ten 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. Cut back! was his mantra. Otherwise everyone will lose! The Wizards are the heirs of Norman Borlaug, whose research, in effect, wrangled the world in service to our species to produce modern high-yield crops that then saved millions from starvation. Innovate! was Borlaug’s cry. Only in that way can everyone win!
Mann delves into these diverging viewpoints to assess the four great challenges humanity faces — food, water, energy, climate change — grounding each in historical context and weighing the options for the future. With our civilization on the line, the author’s insightful analysis is an essential addition to the urgent conversation about how our children will fare on an increasingly crowded Earth.
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"An elegantly written, devoted testimonial to the art of the possible." Jonathan Hahn, Sierra
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“Mann’s storytelling skills are unmatched…..The great virtue of Mann’s book — and much of his journalism over many years — is that it raises very large questions…that are usually either ignored or answered in slogans.” Bill McKibben, The New York Times Book Review
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"The contrast is stark — technological wizardry or romantic prophecy as a lens to view the future path for the planet and humanity. Charles Mann provides a deeply corrugated, richly nuanced, and highly entertaining narrative to make sense of the most consequential decisions facing civilization. Read, think, and enjoy." Ruth deFries, author of The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis
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“Mann is a compelling and forensic analyst of big tipping points in human affairs.” Fred Pearce, The Washington Post
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"A rich, elegant, ferociously readable study of our global quandary. Among the many excellent things Charles C. Mann does in The Wizard and the Prophet is give us a fresh, and wholly unexpected, way of understanding today's political divide." Russell Shorto, author of Revolution Song
About the Author
Charles C. Mann, a correspondent for The Atlantic, Science, and Wired, has also written for Fortune,The New York Times, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Vanity Fair, and The Washington Post, as well as the TV network HBO and the series Law & Order. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he is the recipient of writing awards from the American Bar Association, the American Institute of Physics, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation.