Darrin M McMahon

"Genius. The word connotes an almost unworldly power: the power to create, to grasp universal secrets, even to destroy. As renowned intellectual historian Darrin McMahon explains in Divine Fury, the concept of genius can be traced back to antiquity, when men of great insight were thought to be advised by demons. The modern idea of genius emerged in tension with a growing belief in human equality; contesting the notion that all are created equal, geniuses...

"We live at a time of soaring global inequalities and a concerted challenge to the very notion that human beings can live as equals. Equality, in short, is in crisis. Yet surprisingly little work has been done to understand this complex ideal. Far from being a modern aspiration, as is commonly thought, equality has a long history stretching back to the ancient world. Across the ages, we have also been profoundly ambivalent toward-and even skeptical...