Why Did Jamestown Survive? Charles C. Mann, author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, will discuss that question at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 28, 2007, at the Richmond  Salons at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Student Commons, 907 Floyd Avenue. For more information, please contact John Kneebone, 828-9706. The lecture is free and open to the public.

At Jamestown in 1607, a small number of Europeans landed in the middle of a rapidly expanding, much more populous Indian polity run by an extremely savvy leader. Worse, the Europeans were totally unprepared for colonization. Their death toll was awful—5 out of 6 died between 1607 and 1624. The question immediately presents itself: why did Jamestown survive? 

A correspondent for both Science and the Atlantic Monthly, Mann is the co-author of At Large: The Strange Case of the World’s Biggest Internet Invasion, The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics, and Noah’s Choice: The Future of Endangered Species. 

The May 2007 issue of National Geographic Magazine will feature his article, “America, Lost and Found,” about the establishment of the Jamestown settlement 400 years ago.

John T. Kneebone
5107 Caledonia Road
Richmond, VA 23225
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804-231-1774