Modern Genius

Brought to you by Penguin. A riveting, masterfully researched account of the bold innovators who adapted the Chinese language to the modern world, transforming China into a super-power in the process What does it take to reinvent the world's oldest living language? China today is one of the...

What happened to the European mind between 1605, and 1649? In this turbulent period, science moved from the alchemy and astrology of John Dee to the painstaking observation and astronomy of Galileo, from the classicism of Aristotle, still favoured by the Church, to the evidence-based, collegiate investigation of Francis Bacon.

Goethe was the inventor of the psychological novel, a pioneer scientist, great man of the theatre and a leading politician. As A. N. Wilson argues in this groundbreaking biography, it was his genius and insatiable curiosity that helped catapult the Western world into the modern era. A N. Wilson tackles the life of Goethe with characteristic wit and verve. From his youth as a wild literary prodigy to his later years as Germany’s most respected elder statesman, Wilson hones in on Goethe’s undying obsession with the work he would spend his entire life writing – Faust.

Elon Musk is undeniably a business titan. He controls massive companies like Tesla and SpaceX, and has cemented himself in history forever - but how much do you really know about the man behind it all? Inside this detailed account of Elon Musk’s life and career, you’ll learn about his childhood and schooling in South Africa, his humble beginnings on the American continent, and his first endeavors into business.

'South Africa and its fraught political economy provide a fascinating case study into how it takes a particular brand of genius to thrive in a difficult domestic environment and to take the ideas and the businesses that deliver them from local to global. Genius tells the stories of some of the...

In a book that Doris Kearns Goodwin has called "brilliantly crafted to draw leadership lessons from history", Philip Barlag uses dramatic and colorful incidents from Caesar's career to illustrate what modern leaders can learn from him. Central to Barlag's argument is the distinction between power and force. When leading his own organization, Caesar never used brute force to motivate his followers.

The Age of Genius explores the eventful intertwining of outward event and inner intellectual life to tell, in all its richness and depth, the story of the 17th century in Europe. It was a time of creativity unparalleled in history before or since, from science to the arts, from philosophy to politics.

“Eunice Wong's narration is clear, well paced, and emotionally balanced…This is a thoughtful, slow-burning novel with a narration that complements the complexity of the plot.” — AudioFile From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes the story of three siblings who...

What if genius is not a gift but a regime — a specific, identifiable state of a system that can be understood, entered, and sustained? For centuries, the question of exceptional achievement has been carved up among rival disciplines. Geneticists claim it lives in DNA. Psychologists insist it emerges from practice. Neuroscientists locate it in synaptic density. Sociologists point to culture and timing. Each holds a piece of the truth. None holds the whole.