Angels and Ages
Angels and Ages
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Summary
For the first time a brilliant writer shows us that the abolition of slavery and the publication of the Origin of Species, which together created the modern world, share profound intellectual similarities
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Angels and Ages by Adam Gopnik
'Adam Gopnik has taken a coincidence and turned it into a theory of everything, or at least of everything important ... Outstanding' - Andrew Marr On February 12th, 1809, two men were born an ocean apart: Abraham Lincoln in a one-room Kentucky log cabin; Charles Darwin on an English country estate. Each would see his life's work transform mankind's understanding of itself. In this bicentennial twin portrait, Adam Gopnik shows how these two giants, who never met, changed the way we think about the very nature of existence, and that their great achievements proceeded from the same source: argument from reason. The revolutions they effected shaped the world we live in, while the intellectual heritage and method that informed their parallel lives has profound implications for our present age. Filled with little-known stories and unfamiliar characters, Angels and Ages reveals these men in a new, shared light, and provides a fascinating insight into the origins of our modern vision and liberal values.
'Adam Gopnik is a great essayist, with a precise, fastidious, if occasionally mannered style... His insights are good and the book is informed by the author's profound liberalism' * New Statesman *
This is the essay every essayist would like to have written...he teases, returns again, holds back punchlines and concludes dense paragraphs with intense little summary bombs... The core of the book, the chemical conversion of coincidence to idea, is the proposition that Darwin and Lincoln both entered a world in which people understood themselves vertically - God above, Hell below...outstanding essay * Daily Telegraph *
'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 *
This is the essay every essayist would like to have written...he teases, returns again, holds back punchlines and concludes dense paragraphs with intense little summary bombs... The core of the book, the chemical conversion of coincidence to idea, is the proposition that Darwin and Lincoln both entered a world in which people understood themselves vertically - God above, Hell below...outstanding essay * Daily Telegraph *
'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 *
Adam Gopnik has been writing for the New Yorker since 1986. He is a three-time winner of the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Criticism, and the George Polk Award for magazine reporting. From 1995 to 2000 he lived in Paris; he now lives in New York City with his wife and their two children.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781847249296 |
| ISBN 10 | 1847249299 |
| Title | Angels and Ages |
| Author | Adam Gopnik |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Quercus Publishing |
| Year published | 2009-04-02 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |