Skip Nav  Lincoln and Darwin: More Alike Than You'd Might Think
Lincoln and Darwin: More Alike Than You'd Might Think
Newsweek's cover story pits two men against each other that I
have to confess, I'd never really considered in the same breath:
Lincoln and Darwin. As next year marks the 200th birthdays (both
were born on February 12, 1809) of both men whose independent
ideas have have formed our modern world, Newsweek asks the
tricky question, who was more important: Lincoln or Darwin? Are
we more influenced by the man who preserved the concept of
republican democracy or the man who brought forth the idea of
evolution? The ideas they pioneered were as disparate as the men
are surprisingly similar.  Here's how: Both men lost their
mothers in early childhood, both suffered depression and both
struggled with religious questions. The two also had poor
relations with their fathers and each lost a child in early
childbirth. Lincoln and Darwin both share "late bloomers"
disease: Neither found real success until th