Meet Charlie: Author. Professor. Speaker. Political Reformer.
Welcome to the home page of Charles Wheelan. I am a senior lecturer and policy fellow at the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College, a former correspondent for The Economist, and the author of assorted books that attempt to make serious topics more accessible (and even fun).
One of my friends once described me as an “economics handyman.” I’m still trying to figure out if that was a compliment. Anyway, I’ve always had a passion for public policy–solving real problems–and I think economics (and statistics) offer a good set of tools for understanding how the world works (or doesn’t).
So in books, columns, lectures–and now this web site–I’ve tried to make public policy as interesting to lay people as it is to me. Please take a look around.
Founder and Co-Chair of Unite America
Unite America is a political organization dedicated to bridging the growing partisan divide and fostering a more representative and functional government.
From debt ceiling standoffs to single-digit Congress approval ratings, America’s political system has never been more polarized—or paralyzed—than it is today. Unite America grew out of Wheelan’s 2013 book The Centrist Manifesto.
Unite America invests resources in state-level nonpartisan reforms such as ranked choice voting and independent redistricting. We also work to elect Unity Candidates--Republicans and Democrats, and Independents--who pledge to work across the aisle to facilitate better governance.
Unite America has become an anchor in the larger nonpartisan reform space: Voters First.
Order the Centrist Manifesto! Visit the site!Newly Released Books:
Write for Your Life
The best-selling author's practical guide to writing clearly and convincingly in every professional setting.
How would you create a winning pitch for your latest investment idea? Or persuasively argue for a major policy change? Or successfully ask your boss for a raise? The answer: clear and effective communication, whether in writing or through a presentation.
Best-selling author Charles Wheelan has spent decades mastering effective communication skills in his work as a writer, college professor, journalist, speechwriter, political candidate, and public speaker. In Write for Your Life, he shares his best tips. Taking readers through all the steps required to arrive at a coherent first draft, he then explains the best ways to improve and fine-tune your writing. He covers how to organize and present information, why it’s necessary to adapt your tone to different audiences, and when to use summaries, sidebars, bullet points, and other tools for making information more digestible. He explores the truth behind popular clichés like "Show, don’t tell" and "Kill your darlings," and discusses the proper use and attribution of quotations from secondary sources. And he goes on to cover how to speak effectively, providing helpful advice for preparing a winning presentation or delivering a speech.
Writing with his signature wit and humor, Wheelan illustrates his points with entertaining examples from his own life, as well as memorable anecdotes from leading magazine and newspaper writers, political figures from Winston Churchill to Barack Obama and Elena Kagan, and a diverse array of the best communicators from the worlds of culture, sports, and politics. Write for Your Life is an essential guide for anyone needing to get their ideas across whether in an email, memo, report, presentation, fund-raising letter, or speech.
We Came, We Saw, We Left
Charlie Wheelan and his family do what others dream of: they take a year off to travel the world. This is their story.
“I loved this family. Wheelan is a lucid and likable storyteller, and his antic family dialogues are spot-on.”
--New York Times
“Their tales of adventure and mishap make a fine antidote to the stay-at-home blues.”
--People
A “dizzying blend of tension, charm, silliness, headlong risk and occasionally transcendent profundity.”
--Los Angeles Times
What would happen if you quit your life for a year? In a pre-COVID-19 world, the Wheelan family decided to find out; leaving behind work, school, and even the family dogs to travel the world on a modest budget. Equal parts “how-to” and “how-not-to”—and with an eye toward a world emerging from a pandemic—We Came, We Saw, We Left is the insightful and often hilarious account of one family’s gap-year experiment.
Wheelan paints a picture of adventure and connectivity, juggling themes of local politics, global economics, and family dynamics while exploring answers to questions like: How do you sneak out of a Peruvian town that has been barricaded by the local army? And where can you get treatment for a flesh-eating bacteria your daughter picked up two continents ago? From Colombia to Cambodia, We Came, We Saw, We Left chronicles nine months across six continents with three teenagers. What could go wrong?
