Divine Fury: A History of Genius

By Darrin M. McMahon

Categories: History

Historian Darrin McMahon traces how the idea of genius has changed from antiquity to today. He begins with the ancient belief in a guiding spirit and follows the concept through Christian saints, Renaissance artists and Enlightenment thinkers to Romantic heroes, Einstein and modern celebrities. McMahon shows how the cult of genius reflected people's changing views of the divine, and how it was used and abused.

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• Shane Parrish: “This is a chronicle of the evolution of the word ‘genius.’ “The concept of genius has roots in antiquity, when men of prodigious insight were thought to possess—or to be possessed by—demons and gods.”