false <![CDATA[Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255641360m/6071984.jpg 6071984 1 <p>On a memorable day in human history, February 12, 1809, two babies were born an ocean apart: Abraham Lincoln in a one-room Kentucky log cabin; Charles Darwin on an English country estate. It was a time of backward-seeming notions, when almost everyone still accepted the biblical account of creation as the literal truth and authoritarianism as the most natural and viable social order. But by the time both men died, the world had changed: ordinary people understood that life on earth was a story of continuous evolution, and the Civil War had proved that a democracy could fight for principles and endure. And with these signal insights much else had changed besides. Together, Darwin and Lincoln had become midwives to the spirit of a new world, a new kind of hope and faith.<br><br>Searching for the men behind the icons of emancipation and evolution, Adam Gopnik shows us, in this captivating double life, Lincoln and Darwin as they really were: family men and social climbers; ambitious manipulators and courageous adventurers; the living husband, father, son, and student behind each myth. How do we reconcile Lincoln, the supremely good man we know, with the hardened commander who wittingly sent tens of thousands of young soldiers to certain death? Why did the relentlessly rational Darwin delay publishing his “Great Idea” for almost twenty years? How did inconsolable grief at the loss of a beloved child change each man? And what comfort could either find—for himself or for a society now possessed of a sadder, if wiser, understanding of our existence? Such human questions and their answers are the stuff of this book.<br><br>Above all, we see Lincoln and Darwin as thinkers and writers—as makers and witnesses of the great change in thought that marks truly modern times: a hundred years after the Enlightenment, the old rule of faith and fear finally yielding to one of reason, argument, and observation not merely as intellectual ideals but as a way of life; the judgment of divinity at last submitting to the verdicts of history and time. Lincoln considering human history, Darwin reflecting on deep time—both reshaped our understanding of what life is and how it attains meaning. And they invented a new language to express that understanding. <i>Angels and Ages</i> is an original and personal account of the creation of the liberal voice—of the way we live now and the way we talk at home and in public. Showing that literary eloquence is essential to liberal civilization, Adam Gopnik reveals why our heroes should be possessed by the urgency of utterance, obsessed by the need to see for themselves, and endowed with the gift to speak for us all.</p> 6248478 27 1 2009 Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life total:109|5:20|4:43|3:30|2:11|1:5| 109 389 292 45 0 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 06:36:28 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 06:36:59 -0800 2009
Well-summarized on its cover as “A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life,” Angels and Ages takes us rapidly through popular themes in the lives of Lincoln and Darwin, who were born on the same day in...more...]]> 2 1 false false Sun Mar 01 13:34:08 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 12:23:23 -0800 2009
Art is "experience & observation" in the sense, one gathers, that it can record behavior without supplying explanation--we don't need to know what causes Hamlet to find him interesting.

then dig in, he's got hundreds. If you're sitting...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Feb 19 07:35:25 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 07:36:54 -0800 2009 http://www.miamisunpost.com/archives/200...

Bound - Miami SunPost

Feb. 12, 2009

Abe and Charlie

Adam Gopnik Gets with Lincoln & Darwin

By John Hood

When the stars collided way back on Feb. 12, 1809, they went out of their way to make a...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Nov 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 16:38:23 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 04:36:54 -0800 2009 What do Darwin and Lincoln have in com...more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Jun 04 10:34:40 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 11:12:18 -0700 2009
Abraham Lincoln was very clear on slavery: he would defend it for the sake of the Union. He pushed the Corwin Amendment, a proposed constitutional change...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Apr 15 12:44:33 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 12:44:33 -0700 2009 Although Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln never met, Adam Gopnik forever links them in this collection of essays (some of the material first appeared in the New Yorker) that emphasizes the importance of two great men and reevaluates the role of 19th-century thinking in the modern world. Gopnik's m...

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On a memorable day in human history, February 12, 1809, two babies were born an ocean apart: Abraham Lincoln in a one...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Feb 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 20:56:19 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 07:34:59 -0800 2009
His affection for both Darwin and Lincoln - not just as public figures and...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 11:24:51 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 11:25:31 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 14:44:49 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 06:10:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Mon May 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 21 08:52:28 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 18:41:31 -0700 2009 One of the reviewers on this site said of the book that it was obvious that Gopnik has a tremendous amount of admir...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Feb 13 18:36:47 -0800 2009 Fri Jun 05 12:47:35 -0700 2009
Gopnik attempt...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Nov 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 12 12:56:31 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 12 13:03:41 -0800 2009
Gopnik's emphasis on the written and spoken language of his Lincoln and Darwin and the strat...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jul 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 10:11:32 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 14:55:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Mon Mar 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 09:44:28 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 10:15:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu May 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 12:34:03 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 13:24:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Apr 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 09:51:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 09:19:01 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 14:58:56 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 11:52:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Feb 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 03 19:00:38 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 19:25:28 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 29 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 17:15:36 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 14:30:10 -0800 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=6071984