Today is not “Presidents’ Day,” it is George Washington’s birthday. Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday was last weekend, has no federal holiday of his own. But surely, no American is more worthy of celebration than Lincoln. There are many notable aspects to Lincoln’s character. One that should not be overlooked: Among all of our presidents, he was the most diligent apostle of technological progress.
Born February 12, 1809, Lincoln was part of the first generation in world history to come of age with multiple major changes in the technology of daily life at once, and the first to grow up expecting that technological change would be a continuous fact of life. That had a transformational impact on how Lincoln’s generation saw the world in comparison with their parents. Charles Darwin was born the same day.
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