In Brooks’ introduction, is the contrast between Adam I and Adam II seen as a wholly negative comparison, or are the two complementary and reconcilable?

Why does Brooks spend more time discussing humility than any other aspect of self-mastery and improvement?

Brooks focuses on individuals who differ in gender, race, nationality, religion, values, and social class, but most of them, except for St. Augustine, seem to have lived between the years of 1700 to the present. Why did Brooks choose individuals spanning this particularly “modern” swath of human history?