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Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life
Angels and Ages A Short Book About Darwin Lincoln and Modern Life Author:Adam Gopnik In the year of Darwins and Lincolns bicentennial, New Yorker contributor Gopnik (Through the Childrens Gate) can’t resist the temptation to find parallels of cultural impact between the men, born on the same day in 1809, seeing them as twin exemplars of modernity. Gopnik notes that it is not what they have in common with each other that ma... more »tters; it is what they have in common with us. And that commonality lies in the modern way of speaking (plainly) and thinking (scientific and liberal in the broad sense). But the comparison of the two men feels like a stretch, and Gopniks notion that the very idea of democracy was precarious until Lincoln freed the slaves isn’t wholly convincing. In potted biographies of the two, Gopnik emphasizes the influence of Lincoln the lawyer on Lincoln the politician, and Darwins unusual abilities as a writer of science. Most successfully, Gopnik underscores the importance of eloquence in spreading new ideas, and his notion that Lincoln and Darwin exemplify the modern predicament that humans must live in the space between what we know and what we feel is resonant and worth thinking about.« less