McCann, James C. 1950- (James McCann)

PERSONAL:

Born December 5, 1950. Education: Northwestern University, B.A., 1973; Michigan State University, Ph.D., 1984.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Boston University, African Studies Center, 270 Bay State Rd., Boston, MA 02215. E-mail—mccann@bu.edu.

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and writer. Boston University, Boston, MA, professor of history and associate director for development, African Studies Center. Has held several residential fellowships, including at the National Humanities Center, 1991-92; the Program of Agrarian Studies, Yale University, 1998-99; and the DuBois Institute, Harvard University, 2005-06. Other work-related activities include Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, research associate, 1982, 1985; staff council of the International Livestock Commission for Africa (ILCA), 1985-86; Oxfam, United Kingdom, consultant on Ethiopia, 1987; member of Advisory Board on Rural Vulnerability, United Nations Development Program, Ethiopia, 1988; American Jewish World Service/Save the Children (Norway), consultant on Social Context of Food Storage, 1990; International Center for the Improvement of Maize and Wheat (CIMMYT), Harare, Zimbabwe, visiting scientist, 2000; Mother-Baby Maize Breeding Program, International Center for the Improvement of Maize and Wheat (CIMMYT), Harare, visiting scientist to evaluate crop breeding program, 2004; Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo, consultant, 2005; Friends of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, nominated to board, 2005.

AWARDS, HONORS:

NDFL Language fellow, 1976-79, 1979-80; Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad fellow, 1980-81, 1996-97, 2002-03; Choice magazine Outstanding Academic Books of 1987-88, for From Poverty to Famine; Humanities fellow, Boston University Humanities Foundation, 1989-90; Choice magazine Outstanding Academic Book Award and Outstanding Book in African American Studies for the period 1990-96, 1996, for People of the Plow; George Perkins Marsh Prize, American Society for Environmental History award for best book in environmental history, 2006, for Maize and Grace; W.E.B. Dubois Institute, Harvard University, Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation fellow, 2005-06.

WRITINGS:

Household Economy, Demography, and the "Push" Factor in Northern Ethiopian History, 1916-1935, African Studies Center (Boston, MA), 1983.

Plows, Oxen, and Household Managers: A Reconsideration of the Land Paradigm and the Production Equation in Northeast Ethiopia, African Studies Center (Boston, MA), 1984.

The Political Economy of Rural Rebellion in Ethiopia: Northern Resistance to Imperial Expansion, 1928-1935, African Studies Center (Boston, MA), 1984.

From Poverty to Famine in Northeast Ethiopia: A Rural History, 1900-1935, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1987.

A Great Agrarian Cycle? A History of Agricultural Productivity and Demographic Change in High-land Ethiopia, 1900-1987, African Studies Center (Boston, MA), 1988.

Frontier Agriculture, Food Supply, and Conjuncture: A Revolution in Dura on Ethiopia's Mazega, 1898-1930, African Studies Center (Boston, MA), 1989.

People of the Plow: An Agricultural History of Ethiopia, 1800-1990, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 1995.

Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land: An Environmental History of Africa, 1800-1990, Heinemann (Portsmouth, NH), 1999.

Maize and Grace: Africa's Encounter with a New World Crop, 1500-2000, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

Contributor to books, including Drought and Hunger in Africa: Denying Famine a Future, edited by Michael Glantz, Cambridge University Press, 1987; Ecology and Stress in Northeast Africa: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives, edited by David Anderson and Douglas Johnson, Crook Green Publisher, 1987; The End of Slavery in Africa, edited by Suzanne Miers and Richard Roberts, University of Wisconsin Press, 1988; The Political Economy of Ethiopia, edited by Marina Ottaway, Praeger, 1990; Drought Follows the Plow: Marginal Land Agriculture in Seven Countries, edited by Michael Glantz, Cambridge University Press, 1993; African Studies and the Undergraduate Curriculum: New Directions for the 21st Century, edited by Patricia Alden and David Lloyd, Lynne Reinner Press, 1994; Creeping Environmental Phenomena, edited by Michael Glantz, National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1994; Personality and Political Culture in African History, edited by M. Page and S. Beswick, Michigan State University Press, 1998; The Ethiopian Elections: Democracy Advanced or Restricted, edited by Siegfried Pausewang and Kjetil Tronvoll, Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, 2000; Transatlantic Rebels: Agrarianism in Comparative Context, edited by Thomas Summerhill, Michigan State University Press, 2004; The City and the Country: New Themes in Environmental History, edited by J. Diefendorf and K. Dorsey, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. Contributor to periodicals, including International Journal of African Historical Studies, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of African History, Environmental History, Comparative Studies in Society and History, and American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

SIDELIGHTS:

James C. McCann is a historian whose specialties include African history, environmental history, agricultural history, the history of health and agroecological change. He was called "one of the pioneers of environmental history as a field in African studies" by Environmental History contributor Gregory H. Maddox. McCann has written several books focusing on his areas of interest.

McCann's book People of the Plow: An Agricultural History of Ethiopia, 1800-1990, according to H-Net Web site contributor Christopher Conte, is "a deeply nuanced history of three Ethiopian farming regions linked by the primacy of plow technology in their respective production systems." Ethiopia had the most efficient, innovative, and effective ox-plow agricultural system in Africa for more than two thousand years. However, recent crises such as famine, declining productivity, and losses in biodiversity have negatively impacted this system. In his book, the author analyzes the history of this farming system in an effort to determine whether the system has adapted to modern times, including new crops, population growth, and a modern political economy based in cities. Conte wrote on the H-Net Review Web site: "People of the Plow adds considerable weight to the growing scholarship on African agricultural and environmental history."

In Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land: An Environmental History of Africa, 1800-1990, published in 1999, McCann presents a narrative of Africa's environmental history over the past two centuries. John Parker, writing in the English Historical Review, noted that the author "draws on the best of … new research to provide a concise synthesis of the historical development of the African landscape." McCann also presents his contrarian view that the landscapes of Africa were greatly formed by human activity during this time and were not as pristine as some idealists believed. A contributor to Foreign Affairs referred to Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land as "a lively introduction to a subfield of history with important lessons for future African development." David M. Anderson wrote in Africa that the author "does a superb job in introducing the key themes that any student of environmental change in Africa would want to confront."

McCann's academic work includes leading a joint research team investigating the link between malaria and the production of maize. In his 2005 book Maize and Grace: Africa's Encounter with a New World Crop, 1500-2000, the author explains the science of maize production and explores how this crop has imprinted itself on Africa's agrarian and urban landscapes. Tracing the history of maize in Africa to around 1500 A.D. when an African farmer planted a seed imported from the New World, the author goes on to explore how maize transformed the development of Africa and the Atlantic world.

Writing in his book, the author notes: "It is not that Africa leads the world in maize production—industrial economies like the United States and China hold that distinction—but Africa, more than any other continent, is dependent on maize as a food source. How maize achieved its current dominance in Africa's fields, in its markets, and in its myriad social expressions is my subject. Whether maize has also offered a blessing—its ‘grace’—is the question implicit here."

According to the author, maize will probably become the world's most cultivated crop by 2020. In many African countries, maize counts for twenty percent of the calories consumed. This has resulted from a move throughout the twentieth century to substitute maize for traditional corps such as millet, rice, and sorghum. Maize's transformation into a homegrown vegetable that is now used as a grain is seen by the author as a story of cultural adaptation.

"This book is broadly cast geographically and thematically; it offers an overview but also looks at events and processes from the farms, fields or roasting fire," the author writes in Maize and Grace. The author later notes: "The goal here is to outline and illustrate maize's historical encounter with the landscapes of Africa over half a millennium—that is, from its introduction around 1500 to its current apotheosis as Africa's dominant food crop. The implicit question throughout is whether that encounter had been a story of grace bestowed on the Old World by the New, or whether this is a more fundamental human tale of struggle for both sustenance and meaning."

Maize and Grace received many favorable reviews for both is analysis and importance. "Africa's agricultural production is increasing at two percent per year while population grows at a three percent rate," wrote Allan G. Bogue on the Eh.net Web site. He added, "This book is an invaluable source of information on a basic element in the situation, essential reading for anyone interested in Africa's history or current problems." Gregory H. Maddox wrote in Environmental History: "McCann's history of maize is masterful. His examples are well chosen, and his discussion insightful."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

McCann, James C., Maize and Grace: Africa's Encounter with a New World Crop, 1500-2000, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

PERIODICALS

Africa, summer, 2001, David M. Anderson, review of Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land: An Environmental History of Africa, 1800-1990.

Agricultural History, spring, 2007, G.N. Uzoigwe, review of Maize and Grace.

American Historical Review, December, 2006, Michael J. Watts, review of Maize and Grace, p. 1640.

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, November, 2006, Chung L. Huang, review of Maize and Grace, p. 1117.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, February, 1996, D.M. Warren, review of People of the Plow: An Agricultural History of Ethiopia, 1800-1990, p. 989; January, 2006, W.G. Lockwood, review of Maize and Grace, p. 909.

English Historical Review, November, 2000, John Parker, review of Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land, p. 1337.

Environmental History, October, 2006, Gregory H. Maddox, review of Maize and Grace.

Foreign Affairs, May, 2000, review of Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land, p. 180; September-October, 2005, Nicolas van de Walle, review of Maize and Grace.

Geographical Review, July, 1999, Heidi Glaesel, review of Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land, p. 460.

Historian, fall, 2006, James L.A. Webb, review of Maize and Grace.

International Journal of African Historical Studies, summer, 2000, Nancy Jacobs, review of Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land, p. 679.

Journal of African History, January, 1997, Dessalegn Rahmato, review of People of the Plow, p. 131; March, 2007, Jamie Monson, "How Maize Became the Dominant Food Crop in Africa," p. 150.

Journal of Economic History, December, 2001, Shane Doyle, review of Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land, p. 1127.

Journal of Economic Literature, June, 1996, review of People of the Plow, p. 903; September, 2005, review of Maize and Grace, p. 913.

Journal of Modern African Studies, June, 1996, Irma Taddia, review of People of the Plow, p. 361; September, 2001, Elijah Sithole, review of Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land, p. 559.

Nature, April 14, 2005, Robert Tripp, review of Maize and Grace, p. 825.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 1996, review of People of the Plow, p. 53.

Technology and Culture, October, 1997, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, review of People of the Plow, p. 980; January, 2006, Alfred W. Crosby, review of Maize and Grace, p. 190.

Times Higher Education Supplement, April 14, 2006, Colin Leakey, "Growing Pains of Staple Food," review of Maize and Grace, p. 22.

ONLINE

Boston University, Department of History Web site,http://www.bu.edu/history/ (April 28, 2008), faculty profile of author and author's curriculum vitae.

Eh.net,http://eh.net/ (April 28, 2008), Allan G. Bogue, review of Maize and Grace.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/reviews/ (April 28, 2008), Christopher Conte, review of People of the Plow.