Imprint
- Abacus
Prose: non-fiction, Psychology
Subtitled 'Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives', a pioneering inquiry into the significance of birth order.
Why do people raised in the same families often differ more dramatically in personality than those from different families What made Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire uniquely suited to challenge the conventional wisdom of their times This pioneering inquiry into the significance of birth order answers both these questions with a conceptional boldness that has made critics compare it with the work of Freud and of Darwin himself.
During Frank Sulloway's 20-year-research, he combed through thousands of lives in politics, science and religion, demonstrating that first-born children are more likely to identify with authority whereas their younger siblings are predisposed to rise against it. Family dynamics, Sulloway concludes, is a primary engine of historical change. Elegantly written, masterfully researched, BORN TO REBEL is a grand achievement that has galvanised historians and social scientists and will fascinate anyone who has ever pondered the enigma of human character.
Praise for Born To Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives
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One of the most authoritative and important treatises in the history of the social sciences - Edward O Wilson
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Demolishes all simplistic notions of nature and nurture ... Completely original and unlike anything I have ever seen - Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct
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Its range is both sweeping and intimate: it afford both a new perspective on history and new insights into our everyday life - The Times
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Sulloway's account of his remarkable findings is often quite technical, but this is certainly one of the most fascinating and thought-provoking books I've come across in a long time - OBSERVER
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Magnificent ... It affords a whole new perspctive on both human history and everyday life - Robert Wright, author of The Moral Animal
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