CHF Chicago Humanities Festival

Lecture

  • E-Mail
    (e.g. amandasmith@gmail.com)

    (Please separate multiple email addresses with commas.)

    (You may use or edit the message above.)

  • PRINT

  • Share

  • TEXT SIZE

1492: Before and After Southwest Airlines Program

ABOUT 

  • ABOUT Charles C. Mann

    Charles C. Mann, a correspondent for the Atlantic, Science, and Wired, has written for Fortune, the New York Times, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Vanity Fair, and the Washington Post, as well as for the TV network HBO and the series Law & Order. He is the recipient of numerous writing awards and a three-time National Magazine Award finalist. His book, 1491, won the National Academies Communication Award for the best book of the year.

    Profile
Click next to learn more...

1 of 1

No name seems more inextricably linked to the grand hemispheric experiment of “America” than Christopher Columbus. Seen alternately as explorer and conqueror, hero and villain, Columbus endures as an essential character in America’s national story: his “discovery” of America in 1492 changed the course of history. Who better to interpret this undeniable influence than author Charles C. Mann? A correspondent for The Atlantic, Science, and Wired, Mann authored 1491, an award-winning study of the pre-Columbian Americas, and 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. Both of these books take a riveting look at the earliest days of globalization, introducing a new generation to the conundrum of the “New World.” Mann shares an expansive and compelling vision of the “ecological convulsion” of European trade practices that continues to shape our world.

blog Read the CHF blog post about this program.

This program is generously underwritten by Southwest Airlines.

Learn More

Similar Programs

Lecture

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America

Railroaded, by Stanford historian Richard White, paints a provocative portrait of one of the first corporate behemoths of America: the transcontinental railroads. Published in 2011, the book was quickly and widely hailed as a landmark, sharp-edged account of its subject. In place of the traditional narrative—the triumph of technology symbolized by that gold spike driven into the ground in 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah—White tells a much more nuanced story, attentive to environmental costs, the exploitation of laborers, and the impact on Native Americans.

Lecture

Songs without Words: Tales from America's Past Art Institute of Chicago President's Lecture

The field of cultural history had never seen a more innovative or ambitious project than A History of the World in 100 Objects. Conceived by Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, it tells the human story through 100 selected objects from the institution’s unparalleled holdings of eight million works.

Support CHF - Donate Now

Festival Sponsors

© Copyright 2012 Chicago Humanities Festival