JOYCE E. CHAPLIN & DARRIN M. MCMAHON PB | 9781137497642 | $25 | £16 | CAN$28 A fascinating and wide-ranging collection of historical essays on the concept of genius. ABOUT THIS BOOK The essays in this volume seek to examine the uses to which concepts of genius have been put in different cultures and times. Collectively, they are designed to make two new statements. First, seen in historical and comparative perspective, genius is not a natural fact and universal human constant that has been only recently identified by modern science, but instead a categorical mode of assessing human ability and merit. Second, as a concept with specific definitions and resonances, genius has performed specific cultural work within each of the societies in which it had a historical presence. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction; Joyce E. Chaplin and Darrin M. McMahon 2. The Problem of Genius in the Age of Slavery; Joyce E. Chaplin 3. Genius vs Democracy: Excellence and Singularity in Post-Revolution France; Nathalie Heinich 4. Equality, Inequality, and Difference: Genius as Problem and Possibility in American Political/Scientific Discourse; John S. Carson 5. Genius and Obsession: Do You Have to Be Mad to Be Smart?; Lennard Davis 6. Inspiration to Perspiration: Francis Galton’s Hereditary Genius in Victorian Context; Janet Browne 7. ‘Genius must do the scullery work of the world’: New Women, Feminists and Genius, circa 1880-1920; Lucy Delap 8. The Cult of the Genius in Germany and Austria at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century; Julia Barbara Köhne 9. Cultivating Genius in a Bolshevik Country; Irina Sirotkina 10. Insight in the Age of Automation; David Bates 11. Genius and Evil; Darrin M. McMahon GENEALOGIES OF GENIUS PUBLISHING DECEMBER 2015 ABOUT THE EDITORS JOYCE E. CHAPLIN is the James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University, USA. Her reviews and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the London Review of Books, and the Wall Street Journal. DARRIN M. MCMAHON is the Ben Weider Professor of History at Florida State University, USA. He is the author of many books including Hapiness: A History (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), which has been translated into twelve languages, and was awarded Best Books of the Year honours for 2006 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Library Journal, and Slate. His writings have appeared frequently in such publications as The New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal. Part of the Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History series
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JOYCE E. CHAPLIN & DARRIN M. MCMAHON
PB | 9781137497642 | $25 | £16 | CAN$28
A fascinating and wide-ranging collection of historical essays on the concept of genius.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The essays in this volume seek to examine the uses to which concepts of genius have been put in different cultures and times. Collectively, they are designed to make two new statements. First, seen in historical and comparative perspective, genius is not a natural fact and universal human constant that has been only recently identified by modern science, but instead a categorical mode of assessing human ability and merit. Second, as a concept with specific definitions and resonances, genius has performed specific cultural work within each of the societies in which it had a historical presence.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction; Joyce E. Chaplin and Darrin M. McMahon
2. The Problem of Genius in the Age of Slavery; Joyce E. Chaplin
3. Genius vs Democracy: Excellence and Singularity in Post-Revolution France; Nathalie Heinich
4. Equality, Inequality, and Difference: Genius as Problem and Possibility in American Political/Scientific Discourse; John S. Carson
5. Genius and Obsession: Do You Have to Be Mad to Be Smart?; Lennard Davis
6. Inspiration to Perspiration: Francis Galton’s Hereditary Genius in Victorian Context; Janet Browne
7. ‘Genius must do the scullery work of the world’: New Women, Feminists and Genius, circa 1880-1920; Lucy Delap
8. The Cult of the Genius in Germany and Austria at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century; Julia Barbara Köhne
9. Cultivating Genius in a Bolshevik Country; Irina Sirotkina
10. Insight in the Age of Automation; David Bates
11. Genius and Evil; Darrin M. McMahon
GENEALOGIES OF GENIUS
PUBLISHING DECEMBER 2015
ABOUT THE EDITORS
JOYCE E. CHAPLIN is the James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University, USA. Her reviews and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the London Review of Books, and the Wall Street Journal.
DARRIN M. MCMAHON is the Ben Weider Professor of History at Florida State University, USA. He is the author of many books including Hapiness: A History (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), which has been translated into twelve languages, and was awarded Best Books of the Year honours for 2006 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Library Journal, and Slate. His writings have appeared frequently in such publications as The New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal.
Part of the Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History series
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