James Mann

James Mann is a Washington-based author who has written a series of award-winning books about American foreign policy and about China, and is currently working on the biographical volume of George W. Bush for The American Presidents series.  He is a former newspaper reporter, foreign correspondent and columnist who wrote for more than twenty years for the Los Angeles Times.  He also worked for The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New Haven Journal-Courier.  Mann has also been senior writer-in-residence at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin; winner of the Edward Weintal Prize and the Edwin Hood Award for reporting on American foreign policy as well as other journalism awards. He received his B.A. in sociology from Harvard University.

Mann’s best-known work is Rise of the Vulcans: A History of Bush’s War Cabinet.  Published in 2004, the book became a New York Times best-seller.  Mann has also written three books about America’s relationship with China.  He has also been a contributor to National Public Radio and to several magazines, including The Atlantic, The New Republic, and The American Prospect.  A 1992 article in The Atlantic, “Deep Throat: An Institutional Analysis,” was widely credited as having been the first to explain the hidden dynamics that led the FBI’s Mark Felt to leak information about Watergate.  The article was included in the book, The American Idea: The Best of the Atlantic Monthly, a collection of the magazine’s best articles from the past 150 years.