Written by Adam Gopnik
By disputing with the angels, they helped to begin our age — but by the judgement of the ages, were they really on the side of the angels all along?
Angels and Ages is my new touchstone.
It’s the Enlightenment taken to its natural conclusion: the study of two men, born on the same date in the 19th century, laying the foundations for the moral reality of our world, right up to the 21st century. It’s magnificent.
Adam Gopnik’s thesis is simple. Thanks to the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln, and the research gifts of Charles Darwin, humanity turned the great cog whee, from a vertical view of life (living for whichever god and afterlife we aspire to), to a horizontal view of life (living to better the future for our descendants, while not repeating past mistakes). It’s a simple thesis, but it’s explored with such succinct skill & power that it’s all but baffling that no one has tried to write this before now.
It’s a total synthesis: Lincoln’s and Darwin’s personal and professional experiences, their ambitions and eccentricities, their impact on their friends, acquaintances, and society…all of it is drawn together; the nearly invisible threads linking their efforts to the realization of a new order being made visible and grasped by everyone. If there is one thing Gopnik makes clear in his thesis, it is that Lincoln and Dawrin achieved something for everyone - not infallible dogma, or concrete reality, but the philosophy for which most of humanity aspires…and a minority of humanity fights against, knowing it spells the end of their medieval view of the world. It’s not flawless, it’s not a single “this is how it is” statement…it’s messy, beautiful LIFE, looked upon with reason, observation, and an openness for discussion, debate and revision. It’s chaotic, it’s tragic, it’s sometimes very dark…but also illuminated with the beautiful realization of what humanity is capable of, based on where it came from, and assured of where it might be going. Can it be any more breathtaking?
It’s hard to describe further without more lyrical waxing on my part…but here’s a snippet from the conclusion, as a taste of what is in store for the reader:
Induction and argument are the probity of liberal thought. Facts matter, logic counts, describing the stamen of the orchid exactly is worth six volumes on the metaphysics of being. The truth matters to the progress of a free nation - but it matters just as much that the truth be accepted. In an open society, new truths need to be told, and new truths need to be heard. It was Darwin’s inductive eloquence that allowed science to rewrite the history of life; it was Lincoln’s rational passion that ended the long horror of slavery, and began the adventure of democracy as a dominant, not a Utopian, way of life.
Modern life is transformative: constantly changing, constantly debated, constantly being rewritten - truths replacing truths, new replacing old…progress, not stagnation or dogma.
Angels and Ages is the philosophical statement of why we study history & science, but don’t discard religion and philosophy - it’s the great human journey, as established through the actions of two remarkable men, far ahead of their time. It’s a short book, but it will leave you in a contemplative mood for a long, long time afterwards.
Then again, Gopnik would be insulted to think that his book, concluded with pat answers or a singular contentment. It’s certainly not a road Lincoln or Darwin would have travelled…
