Customer Reviews

Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life

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This interesting, scholarly book looks at the parallel lives of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, both born on the same February day in 1809. It's a fascinating glimpse at what life was like for these two men, and how they both changed history. After their deaths, a new liberal voice emerges: "the change from soul to mind as the engine of existence, and then from angels to ages as the overseers of life."

What makes Angels and Ages so compelling, for me, is the way these two men are made human. I now can see the flesh-and-blood husbands, fathers, sons and working men behind the icons.

A portrait of Lincoln as a shrewd, clear-eyed politician emerges. Famously born in a Kentucky log cabin, Lincoln wrote that his father Thomas wrote his own name "bunglingly." After his marriage to Mary Todd, Lincoln stands on his front porch, "a tall man with enough money to build a big house and be proud of it." Spoiling his kids, Lincoln "held their hands as they danced him down the street."

In Darwin, a timid doting father peeks out from these pages, a person who loved to look at things and wrestle with his kids. He delayed a full 21 years before publishing "his great idea, the idea of evolution by natural selection. He was afraid of being attacked by the powerful and the bigoted." Darwin was also haunted by the fact that his findings would "end any intellectually credible idea of divine creation," and his beloved wife Emma used religion for comfort after the death of their favorite child, 10-year-old Anna.

Author Adam Gopnik is fond of using poetic turns of phrase and long sentences. For example, he writes this about reading Darwin's On the Origin of the Species: "It's a Victorian hallucinogen, where the whole world suddenly comes alive and begins moving, so that the likeness between seagulls and sandpipers on the beach where you are reading suddenly becomes spookily animated, part of a single restless whole, with the birds' giant lizard ancestors looming like ghosts above them." It's evocative, but you might need to slow down your reading to catch all his meaning.

Here's the chapter list:

Introduction: Angels and Ages
1. Lincoln's Mind
2. Darwin's Eye
3. Lincoln in History
4. Darwin in Time
Conclusion: Ages and Angels

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born 12 February 1809. That was the most direct coincidence of the two lives; that they became great and famous men was secondary. The coincidence of their birthdays somehow inspired two books each written as a short, dual-biography of the two men. The first (published in 2008) was David Contosta's "Rebel Giants", subtitled, "The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln & Charles Darwin". The second (published in 2009) was Adam Gopnik's "Angels and Ages". Gopnik's book is short (204 pages) and considering that it covered two men (with Darwin getting more page space) it really was a very short biographical work. However, since this is the 200th anniversary of their birth, curiosity might tempt many to read a little about Lincoln and Darwin. "Angels and Ages" will satisfy most people who have little or no knowledge about these men. Like "Rebel Giants" the reader will not read much about direct comparisons between the two lives, as indeed, both led in different directions on two different continents. There is a third book, "Darwin's Sacred Causes" written by two well known Darwin biographers Adrian Desmond & James Moore) which made a more scholarly attempt to show how the idea and practice of slavery (as opposed to an account comparing the lives of Darwin and Lincoln ) had a great humanitarian influence on Darwin's thoughts and attitude.

On the whole, while "Angels and Ages" is a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening book, one might feel that the author was rushing, and there were moments when one might need to read over carefully because too many ideas were introduced and when that happens in a short book, the inevitable result is that the connections linking one idea to the next may sometimes be faulty or absent. Gopnik's comment about Darwin's literary style is one example. He made a fascinating point that Darwin's effectiveness was not in his use of the metaphor but in his avoidance of it. This would have benefitted from a deeper study but was soon lost between two pages. In contrast, "Rebel Giants" (330 pages) was written in a more measured pace. It also has the benefit of an index which Angels and Ages does not. It is a difficult choice but if you have time, read both but otherwise, I would recommend "Rebel Giants" to be the slightly more rewarding of the two.

It is rare for a book of about 200 pages to contain much insight, but Adam Gopnik has done so, and managed to do it with an elegance of wit and language that would do credit to either of his subjects.

Angels and Ages is a dual biography of two men born on the same February day in 1809: Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. Although born in very different circumstance, one in comfort and the other in dire poverty, both became major world changers and shifters. Both were accomplished wordsmiths, able to frame complicated ideas in beautiful, clear language. Both were devoted family men who suffered the loss of beloved children and endured difficult relationships with their spouses. Most of all, both were revolutionaries, able in one case to enunciate a clear doctrine of liberty and equality through law and in the other to set forth a new vision of how life began and developed.

There are many more parallels than these in the lives of Darwin and Lincoln, and Gopnik does an excellent job describing and summarizing them. He does so in language that is as beautiful as anything either of his subjects could produce. I especially appreciated his Bibliographical Note at the end, in which he encapsulates most of the recent scholarship on the two men.

While by no means a complete biography of either Lincoln or Darwin, Angels and Ages does capture the most important essence of both men, and provides its readers with much to ponder.

The marriage between Darwin and Lincoln which Gopnik makes the uniting principle of this book doesn't work. The essays would have been better off presented separately--say, in a magazine like The New Yorker, which, as it happens, is how they started life. That both men were born on the same day of the same year, and that both were so influential (Darwin particularly so) in their time and after, is not sufficient to overcome the artificiality of so joining them (and only them).

This short book is well worth reading (if you missed it in magazine form) for the truly fascinating and poignant first essay on Darwin--written in such a heartfelt and observant way. (The essays on Lincoln seem less engaging to me--somehow the book feel more devoted to Darwin, and so, a little unbalanced.) Gopnik's explorations of how Darwin and how Lincoln came to view religion and death over the course of their lives--differently from each other--were the most compelling aspect of the book, and seemed the most revealing about the emerging modern world.

A curious little book--even if the Darwin/Lincoln aspect fails to achieve its purpose, still full of insight.

These days the air is thick with talk of Abraham Lincoln. From the fascination with his "team of rivals" to the political roots in Springfield, Illinois, he shares with our new president, it seems everyone wants to grab a seat in Lincoln's rail car.

Charles Darwin has had his own recent stint in the limelight. In 2005, in my hometown of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a conservative Republican federal judge patiently listened to seven weeks of testimony in a challenge to a small town school board's attempt to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design" --- a fundamentalist antidote to Darwin's theory of natural selection --- before issuing a blistering opinion rejecting it as a violation of the First Amendment.

Born on the same day --- February 12, 1809 --- one in a cramped Kentucky log cabin and the other in comfortable circumstances in England, the subjects of The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik's intellectually stimulating appreciation might appear to be an odd couple. But like a contemporary Plutarch, Gopnik has linked these monumental historical figures on the intriguing theory that they form "two pillars of the society we live in: one representing liberal democracy, the other the human sciences...." And while that connection is far from obvious, by the end of a work in which he marries analytical rigor to his customary elegant prose, he has made a persuasive case that the two merit this unique joint recognition.

Originally published as two pieces in The New Yorker, ANGELS AND AGES consists of four chapters alternating between Lincoln and Darwin, bracketed by opening and concluding essays in which Gopnik considers his subjects together. The book takes its title from the debate that has raged over the words uttered by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton at the moment of Lincoln's passing: Did the assassinated president belong to the "angels" or the "ages?" For Gopnik, that mystery triggers a searching inquiry into the influence of his subjects on the birth of modern liberal thought, as Western civilization, spurred by their work, underwent a decisive shift from a vertical worldview, eyes cast heavenward in reliance upon the divine, to one that came to grips with mankind's place in the vast forward movement of history.

Gopnik is most captivated by Lincoln and Darwin's skill as writers, their facility with the written word forming the core of his thesis that "literary eloquence is essential to liberal civilization; our heroes should be men and women possessed by the urgency of utterance, obsessed by the need to see for themselves and to speak for us all." To support it, he marshals an impressive body of evidence in a work that in the best sense seems intended, not to end a debate, but to spark one.

In the case of Lincoln, "a great writer whose form was talking," Gopnik argues that the lawyer-turned-politician's "rhetorical genius lay in making cold calculation look like passionate idealism, in making closely reasoned argument ring with the sound of religious necessity." Darwin, who Gopnik describes as a "natural novelist," brought us a new way of seeing, "to remind us of the role of good old-fashioned observation in science." He displayed that gift long before the publication of ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES in 1859, a work he produced more than 20 years after formulating the theory of natural selection, the delay arising, in part, from his reluctance to expound a construct that would be at odds with his wife's strong religious convictions.

For although Lincoln and Darwin were public men, both displayed an intense attachment to family life, and both, Gopnik points out, were profoundly affected by the loss of a young child. As to each, he musters a spirited defense against charges of racism --- Lincoln because of the claim of some that his determination to end slavery did not extend to the notion of equality for its victims, and Darwin arising from the way his theories have been distorted in order to hijack them into the service of political agendas that would have been alien to him.

In the moving final pages of his book, Gopnik asks us to consider no less a subject than how the ideas to which Darwin and Lincoln gave such eloquent voice have shaped our notion of what it means to be human. "They found a way to sustain the necessary values of the Enlightenment," Gopnik concludes, "in the face of pessimistic truths about the universe and political conduct." Though they operated in the disparate realms of politics and science, both of these extraordinary men made us see the world in new ways, and, through that insight, helped usher in a new world.

--- Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg

I must confess that I am apparently much more conversant with Darwin than with Lincoln. I found this book very interesting once I got into it, even though I read the chapters out of sequence (reading Darwin's two chapters first, then the second Lincoln chapter, then the first Lincoln chapter, and finally the intro and concluding chapter). The book is a celebration of these two giants on their joint bicentennial. While the author's focus shifts around frequently, the key idea he discusses in how Lincoln and Darwin communicated, and how their skill in using language contributed to their significance. For Lincoln, I came to understand, this is a hot topic currently, with a number of books devoted to his Cooper Union, Second Inaugural, Gettysburg speeches and addresses. For the author, the key to Lincoln is that the law allowed him to join the middle class and ultimately become President. He speaks in coldly rational, carefully constructed legal arguments, emphasizing contractual obligations and adhering to procedural requirements. For Lincoln, the curse of American life was violence--the cure was law. He spoke like the King James bible, and developed a technique for unleashing a final short, dramatic concluding sentence which put his argument into irrefutable perspective. Incidentally, the title of the book comes from a debate as to whether at Lincoln's deathbed, Secretary Stanton said that Lincoln now belonged to the "angels" or to the "ages." The second chapter devoted to Lincoln, "Lincoln in History," concentrates on this issue and related topics.

As to Darwin, the author's analysis is superb. The key to the "Origin" is that anyone could (and most people did) read it. He was a Victorian scientist but wrote like a Victorian novelist, the author observes. Darwin is pictured as sort of a Victorian Lt. Columbo, piling fact upon fact, making the reader confortable, and then unleashing his ultimate point in straightforward language. He anticipates attacks on his position and sympathetically but firmly addresses them as he goes along--not as a "know it all" but rather based on years of minute observation of nature. For Darwin, slow and steady wins the race, and covers long stretches of time. I found particularly interesting the author's discussion of how the death of Darwin's daughter might have impacted on his theoretical development. Equally interesting is the author's firm (and quite correct) assertion that Darwin was no racist, a topic that sometimes pops up in current discussions of evolution. Finally, the author suggests we read Darwin's last book on earth worms to really grasp the essence of his writing skills. The two Darwin chapters offer some remarkable insights into this most remarkable character.

The final chapter is primarily the author's ruminations and reflections on his subjects' use of legal and scientific reasoning; democracy and military power; does evolution undermine humanities?; the concept of progress; and how biology impacts upon our goals and freedom of inquiry. Some very engrossing ideas are unleashed here. While the book lacks an index, it does contain a highly useful "Bibliographic Note." Incidentally, the author is as skillful a writer as I have encountered; but there is much substance in addition to his erudition.

This is a five-chapter book. The first four chapters alternate between Mr. Gopnik's takes on Messrs Lincoln and Darwin. These are very interesting chapters. They are by no means definitive biographies of either man, but that's not what I wanted. I didn't want to read about Ann Rutledge or the different finches of the Galapagos. There are many books that can do that quite well. What this book does is to provide very short, unique insights into both men, how they transcended their time: philosophically and stylistically. Going into the fifth chapter, this was a five-star book. In the last chapter, Mr. Gopnik felt obliged to tie everything up in a coherent package (which is reasonable), but became mired in philosophical quicksand. The chapter kept going on and on, without his saying anything (at least to me). So, my advice would be: read Chapters 1 to 4, and skip Chapter 5.

Over my years in management consulting and many more years listening to the growing insanity of politics, I have become increasingly anti-WORD. Whether listening to a consultant speak about "leveraging synergies to maximize shareholder value across multiple touch-points" while laying off an army or a politician wax eloquent about the need to let our nation fail simply to ensure that the other side not be right, I've lost my faith in talk. On the grand scale, words are meaningless.

In this book, Adam Gopnik (with the able assistance of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin) restores my faith in what we *say*. His book is about two men who defined themselves and their era -- and whom we continue to define -- through many of the most breathtaking words ever written or spoken.

Mr. Gopnik's verbal clarity, intellectual rigor, and historical synthesis are themselves extraordinary. This is a book you can read in an evening, think about for a week, and remember for years. You read it and you feel yourself planted in the sweep of history and in the sobering reality of the present. This book is a revelation.

Time and tide wait for no man; some will show us how they (time, tide, or man) wait not.

In his introductory chapter the author, Adam Gopnik, says "we are all pebbles dropped in the sea of history, where the splashes strike one way and the big tides run (the other way), and though what we feel is the splash, the splash takes place only within those tides. In almost every case, the (contra tide) drowns the splash; once in a while (a pebble splash) changes the way the (tide) runs." (My words and improvements in parentheses)

At the time of this review (2009), it was exactly 200 years since two men were born on the same day. Both, in their relentless search and practice for the truth, changed the way we see the real world today. The one changed the way we see time and life, the other changed the way we see true leadership and freedom.

Every learned person knows about Darwin. Most have heard of Abraham Lincoln. What few people know is that Abraham Lincoln also pitched his fearless leadership against the avaricious, corrupt banking plutocrats of Europe, England, and of the USA. The heartless plutocrats (who are still in existence today) arranged for his assassination. His leadership has in no way been nearly matched since. The Greenbacks of yore have since been replaced by the banking plutocrats' private-made-public debt money, and Americans have been paying for it bitterly in life and death ever since.

The book is well worth reading for its prose, besides being read for its historical and philosophical content. The author's style of writing is well suited for the subject matter, as the discoveries have been given the poetic justice they deserve by the prose so beautifully penned in this book. The only negatives that give it 4 instead of 5 stars are the occasional over-embellished or badly thought-out prose. Pity also about the absence of index.

It is interesting to see that mine is the first three star review of this book. While I enjoyed Gopnick's meditations on Lincoln, Darwin, and their respective legacies, I was somewhat disappointed by this book's lack of original insight and, to some degree, lack of unifying theme. AFter reading it, I had an overwhelming sense of ambivalence about the book that can only lead to a three star review, and felt certain that others would have reached the same conclusion. They didn't, and I think I see why.

AFter reading other reviews, it seems that the low star (1, 2) star reviews expected the book to be an academic biography and, thus, were disappointed. Teh high star (4, 5) reviews wanted a very readable and casual essay on Lincoln and Darwin, and thus, were not disappointed. In other words, if you are expecting an academic treatment, this book is not for you. If you are expecting a very readable, but not overly scholarly, meditation on two key moderns, then this book is what you are looking for.

As another reviewer (2 star) points out, Gopnick is not a historian or academic, but an essayist. His abilities at essay writing shine through well in this book as the writing is quite conversational and lucid - the kind of prose you'd expect in Newsweek or Times that satisfies the everyday reader. Gopnick's book won't cause a stir at an academic conference, but for a reader not terribly familiar with Darwin and Lincoln, who wants a good introductory read, this book is not bad.

The majority of complaints - complaints which I share - come from Gopnick's lack of direction. When I began this book, I assumed that Gopnick had a compelling reason for dividing the book between two subjects - some underlying theme or parallellism between the two thinkers that Gopnick would gradually reveal (or hit us over the head with).

Sadly, he does not really do this. The only theme readily discernable is that Darwin and Lincoln (born on the same day) can equally claim to have catylized two major changes that gave rise to "modernity": racial equalitarianism and evolutionary theory. But Gopnick doesn't do a great job of tying these thinkers together, and as such, the book feels like a somewhat meandering and ultimately purposeless essay on two very different thinkers.

Not only does Gopnick not "tie" his theme together very well, but this book is hard to categorize in other ways. It is not really a biography and not really a literary essay. Biographical information is certainly a part of Gopnick's book, but it delves too much into philosophic speculation and literary analysis of the subjects' writings to be a biography. Similarly, one could call it a literary essay, as Gopnick clearly wants to ponder the significance of Darwin and Lincoln's respective philosophies and their impact on their and future times. But the book is neither fully biography or literary essay and, while there is nothing inherently wrong in that, it does make the read frustrating by its lack of clear direction.

So, I will be the first to conribute a three star reveiw, and cannot concieve of ranking this book anything but that. It is great for those who want to take a casual but stimulating stroll through the lives and legacies of Charles Darwin and Abe Lincoln. It is certainly not the book, however, if you are looking for any sort of in-depth history, philosophic essay, or original work of scholarship. Decide which of these you are looking for before you buy and read Angels and Ages. That way, you won't have to be as ambivalent about this book as I am.