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Angels and Ages: A short book about Darwin, Lincoln and modern life
 
 
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Angels and Ages: A short book about Darwin, Lincoln and modern life [Kindle Edition]

Adam Gopnik (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews) |
Digital List Price: £8.05 What's this?
Print List Price: £8.99
Kindle Price: £6.40 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
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Product Description

Review

‘Adam Gopnik has taken a coincidence and turned it into a theory of everything, or at least of everything important … Outstanding’ Andrew Marr.

‘Vivid and charming … Gopnik moves from the personal to the political with ease, and his writing hums with authenticity’ Financial Times.

'Gopnik knows well enough that Darwin and Lincoln's shared birth date is a mere accident of history, but he comes as close as anyone can in convincing you otherwise' New Scientist.

Review

Adam Gopnik has taken a coincidence and turned it into a theory of everything, or at least of everything important Outstanding' Andrew Marr. Vivid and charming Gopnik moves from the personal to the political with ease, and his writing hums with authenticity' Financial Times. 'Gopnik knows well enough that Darwin and Lincoln's shared birth date is a mere accident of history, but he comes as close as anyone can in convincing you otherwise' New Scientist.
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Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 394 KB
  • Print Length: 225 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0307270785
  • Publisher: Quercus (1 April 2010)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B004IPQEBC
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #263,029 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Adam Gopnik
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
A brilliant twinning 8 April 2012
Format:Paperback
When I started reading this I was dubious about the significance of the shared date of birth of Darwin and Lincoln, but the author soon convinced me that the coincidence was much deeper. Both men, in very different circumstances, carried out a revolution in thought that brought in the modern world. Both were respectable citizens, not wild eccentrics. They were family men to an extent that was rare at the time, and each lost a beloved child. They shared a belief in our common humanity and a loathing for slavery. Both believed in the power of evidence and argument to change minds. Each in his different way was a master of persuasive language.
Lincoln was a lawyer and saw that respect for the law and the Constitution must be the basis for a just society. He crafted his speeches in such a way that a complex logical argument led up to a memorable punch line in the plainest English. He was a reluctant warrior who suffered deeply from the death on both sides, and his own death prevented him from following through from the emancipation of the slaves to their enfranchisement.
Darwin was a biologist with both an extraordinary eye for detail and a clear vision of life as a whole. He also had the talents of a novelist, which enabled him to present the theory of natural selection in such a way as to make it almost irresistible, and he disarmed critics by anticipating their objections. It took him 21 years to go from conception to publication, partly because he did not want to upset the religious convictions of his wife, whom he loved dearly.
Gopnik is himself a fine narrator and stylist, and he says as much in this one short book as others have taken volumes to convey.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By M. A. Ramos TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Adam Gopnik is a writer for the 'New Yorker' and has written this small book which contains dual biography of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln which he ties together because they were both born on 12 February 1809. In his two essays the author analyzes what he sees as their influence on modern society. He contends that these two men introduced what we know as the liberal modern age with Lincoln's speeches and Darwin's writings. That these were the men and vehicles used to spread the new ideas that formed modern society. As a dual historical biography he fails but as two separate essays they would be excellent for publication within the pages of the magazine he works for. Or if you are just looking for a casual introduction into these two men it would be worth acquiring and reading.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Interesting for much information that is new to the non-specialist, but a bit tedious for the constant stuff in brackets. I knew a lot more about Darwin, yet I found the Darwin chapters more convincing and 'sympathetic'. I would recommend the book, also because it is a pleasure to read something that is relatively brief, but with some reservations.
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