Tom Shachtman has written or co-authored forty books. His latest include the startlingly unconventional novel, THE MEMOIR OF THE MINOTAUR (2020), and the third in his trilogy of histories about the Revolutionary Era, THE FOUNDING FORTUNES (2020). The earlier ones are HW THE FRENCH SAVED AMERICA (2017) and GENTLEMEN SCIENTISTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES (2014). His best-known earlier books are RUMSPRINGA: TO BE OR NOT TO BE AMISH (2006), ABSOLUTE ZERO AND THE CONQUEST OF COLD (1999), and three books with FBI chief profiler Robert K. Ressler, including the international bestseller WHOEVER FIGHTS MONSTERS. His earlier novels include BEACHMASTER, WAVEBENDER, and DRIFTWHISTLER (1981-1985), and the digital-only PIRATE OF LAKE ERIE (2018).
He has also written documentaries for ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and BBC, and has taught at New York University and lectured at Harvard, Stanford, Georgia Tech, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian's National History Museum.
His most recent award, in February 2010, was the American Institute of Physics' sciencewriting prize for his script of the two-hour documentary, ABSOLUTE ZERO AND THE CONQUEST OF COLD (PBS, 2008), based on his book of the same name. The New York Times Book Review characterized that book as written "with passion and clarity," the Library Journal called it "a truly wonderful book." In print in four languages, it is cited in many compilations of the best popular science books.
Publishers' Weekly labeled RUMSPRINGA: TO BE OR NOT TO BE AMISH, Publishers Weekly "not only one of the most absorbing ... ever written about the Plain People, but a perceptive snapshot of the larger culture in which they live." The Christian Science Monitor wrote, "Shachtman is like a maestro, masterfully conducting an orchestra of history, anthropology, psychology, sociology, and journalism together in a harmonious and evocative symphony of all things Amish."
Earlier Shachtman books in use as secondary texts include TERRORS AND MARVELS (2002), about science and technology in World War II; THE INARTICULATE SOCIETY (1995), about mass media and culture, recently re-issued in paperback; SKYSCRAPER DREAMS: THE GREAT REAL ESTATE DYNASTIES OF NEW YORK (1991), which Business Week characterized as "A fascinating history, showing how the city has been molded by the edifice complexes of risk-takers" and by The New York Times Book Review as "Superb reporting on the industry's wheeling and dealing"; and DECADE OF SHOCKS, 1963-1974 (1983).
AROUND THE BLOCK (1997), a socio-economic study of a single block in Manhattan over the course of a year, was called "a near-classic" by The Economist, by The New Yorker "a grand idea, splendidly executed," and by The Washington Post Book World a "thoughtful, interesting ... good and useful book."
Among his documentaries are six programs in the CBS science and technology series THE 21ST CENTURY. Documentaries that he also directed and produced, notably the CHILDREN OF POVERTY trilogy of one-hours about inner-city children, won first prizes at San Francisco, Atlanta, and New York International festivals, a half-dozen New York area Emmys, and were shown in Congress and at the White House.
He is a former chairman of The Writers Room in Manhattan, a trustee of the Connecticut Humanities Council, a founding director of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, and is currently a consultant to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's science and technology initiatives.
Further details at www.tomshachtman.com
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