Re: [asa] Lincoln and Darwin

I read somewhere last year (I think in a history magazine, but in something
by a professional historian), in an article on Lincoln and Darwin, that the
3 individuals about whom historians had written the most were, in order:

Jesus
Napoleon
Lincoln

Darwin was somewhere down the list.

IMO, Darwin was probably the most influential scientist of the 19th
century, in terms of influence of ideas on the wider culture. But that's
certainly an arguable point -- who is to say that Faraday or Maxwell or
Pasteur or Liebig or ... well, you can probably come up with several other
names here, wasn't equally influential, since their ideas ended up in
zillions of important applications. It depends on the kinds of influences
you want to talk about.

Darwin was also IMO one of the greatest scientists of his century, but
(again) you can make a good case for Helmholtz (he's my own choice for
number one) and others.

When it comes to statesmen from that century, however, it's hard to make a
case for anyone other than Lincoln, IMO. Certainly the greatest American
president of any century, and enormously influential all over the world.

As a single bicentennial day, I doubt there's a more important one than
this when it comes to multiple individuals.

Ted

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Received on Thu Feb 12 11:10:04 2009