“Darrin McMahon has become one of the world’s greatest historians of ideas…Prepare to be blown away.”—Daniel Gilbert, Harvard University,《快樂為什麼不幸福》（Stumbling on Happiness）作者
“What an illuminating book Darrin McMahon has given us. By tracing the history of a seemingly simple idea—that of the individual genius—he sheds a bright and sometimes disturbing light on how we think about ourselves and our societies today. Drawing artfully on a wide range of philosophical, religious, artistic, and scientific material, McMahon forces us to ask: why are we so eager to identify geniuses? What do we expect from them, and why? After reading his compelling story you may never use the term ‘genius’ again.”—Mark Lilla,《當知識分子遇到政治》《The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West》作者
“It is rare to find an historian who writes in a style both so sure-footed and so light, and with such joy in the telling of a tale. In his engaging new book Darrin McMahon takes us on an intellectual adventure, tracing the transformation of the idea of genius as it shed its sacred garments to become the common property of our own democratic age. Ranging with ease across history—from the poets of Romanticism to the tyrants of the twentieth-century, from Einstein to the “IQ Test,” and from Benjamin Franklin to the “wiz-kid” inventors of silicon valley—McMahon invites us to consider a central paradox of our time: If anyone can be a genius, then perhaps no one is.”—Peter E. Gordon, Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University, and author of Continental Divide: Heidegger, Cassirer, Davos
