Darwin & Lincoln Share Birthday Fun!

Happy birthday to Charles Darwin (Feb. 12, 1809, to April 19, 1882) and to Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12, 1809, to April 15, 1865).

For accounts of some legal battles over Darwin's theory, see

• Edward Humes, Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul (2007), ABA Silver Gavel Honorable Mention, 2008
• Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion (1997), Pulitzer Prize, History, 1998

And what about Abe? See

• Daniel Farber, Lincoln's Constitution (2003), ABA Silver Gavel Honorable Mention, 2004
• John Fabian Witt, Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History (2012), Pulitzer Prize Finalist, History, 2013, Bancroft Prize, 2013, ABA Silver Gavel Award, 2013, and more!

For more great books and a wide range of topics, see Prizewinning Books in Law.

Bonus for fans of evolution and biology: The National Academies Press offers free PDF downloads of Science, Evolution, and Creationism (2008) and Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution (2010).

Graphic:
Portrait of Darwin from page 8 of What Mr. Darwin saw in his Voyage round The World in the Ship "Beagle" (1879), available in British Library's Flickr photostream. Portrait of Lincoln (the last known photograph of him) from National Park Service, Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park. Portraits decorated by Mary Whisner