Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives - Softcover

Sulloway, Frank J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679758763 ISBN 13: 9780679758761

Publisher: Vintage, 1997

Synopsis

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

"An important and valuable study that will define research agendas for years to come. It is also hugely fun to read."
--Boston Globe

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 conceptual boldness that has made critics compare it with the work of Freud and of Darwin himself.    

    
Frank J. Sulloway envisions families as ecosystems in which siblings compete for parental favor by occupying specialized niches.  Combing through thousands of biographies in politics, science, and religion, he demonstrates that firstborn 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 galvanized historians and social scientists and will fascinate anyone who has ever pondered the enigma of human character.    

    
"Daring . . . a stunning achievement. "    
--The New York Times Book Review

About this title

Review:

This groundbreaking book takes on the influence of birth order in personalities and offers some surprising conclusions. Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has undertaken the first comprehensive study of birth order in determining personality and social outlook. He produces overwhelming evidence that, because of the evolutionary hierarchy in families, first-born children are more likely to be conformists while the later-borns tend to be more creative and more likely to reject the status quo. He documents just how different siblings are from each another--a person tends to have more in common with any randomly chosen person of their own age than with a sibling--and explains why sibling differences occur. The book offers new insights into the determining factors of who we are and who our children will be, and it is unlike any research yet published.

About the Author:

Frank J. Sulloway has a Ph.D. from Harvard. He is a M.I.T. Research Scholar and also a recipient of a MacArthur 'Genius' grant. He is the author of Freud: Biologist of the Mind. He lives in Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0679758763
• ISBN 13: 9780679758761
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 672