J. R. McNeill

John Robert McNeill (born October 6, 1954) is an American environmental historian, author, and professor at Georgetown University. He is best known for authoring Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-century World.

McNeill was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father is the noted University of Chicago historian William H. McNeill, with whom he co-authored the book, The Human Web: A Bird's-eye View of World History (New York: Norton, 2003).

J. R. McNeill received his BA from Swarthmore College in 1975, then went on to Duke University where he completed his MA (1977) and PhD (1981). In 1985 he became a faculty member at Georgetown University, where he serves in both the History Department and the Walsh School of Foreign Service. From 2003 to 2006, he held the Cinco Hermanos Chair in Environmental History and International Affairs, until his appointment as University Professor. He has held two Fulbright Awards, a Guggenheim fellowship, a MacArthur Grant, and a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He was president of the American Society for Environmental History (2011–13) and headed the Research Division of the American Historical Association, as one of its three Vice-Presidents (2012–15).

McNeill has published more than 50 scholarly articles in professional and scientific journals. McNeill's most well-known work is Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-century World, which documents the dramatic ways humankind has changed the Earth. The book won the 2000 World History Association Book Prize, the Forest Society book prize, among other awards, and has been translated into nine languages.

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