2003 Science in Society Journalism Awards

Book

Steve Olson

Mapping Human History

Houghton Mifflin

Description:

In the book category, Steve Olson won for Mapping Human History, which explores the topic of racial identity. The judges said Olson’s book has enormous sweep and clarity. “He’s traveled all over the world talking to all the experts and some of the most genetically diverse human beings alive; and he’s pulled together all this research in a book that flows. It not only educates, but moves the reader.” They also said Olson makes his case “with a remarkable sweep of perspectives, from the individual to the global, and across all human evolution. His scholarship, too, is impressive, including the vast amount of literature he consulted as well as the compelling in-field report he did that took him around the world.” They concluded that Mapping Human History is a "big-think book that could help an ever more globalized world grapple with its diversity in a sustainable way."

Biography:

Steve Olson has written for the Atlantic Monthly, Scientific American, and Science. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, where he coaches the math team at a public middle school.

Science in Society Journalism Awards:
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