The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley
The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley book cover

The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley

by
Price
$15.10
Format
Hardcover
Pages
368
Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1451691658
Dimensions
6.25 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
Weight
1.3 pounds

Description

An Amazon Best Book of January 2016: Eric Weiner’s first book, The Geography of Bliss , found him in search of the happiest places on Earth. Now, in The Geography of Genius , he looks for creative hotbeds where geniuses from Socrates to Steve Jobs thrived, and asks why. Moreover, why do these hotbeds eventually fizzle? The book—an irreverent and surprisingly entertaining blend of historical biography, travel essay, and sociological study—centers around this quote by Plato: “What is honored in a country will be cultivated there,” be it intellectual discourse, art, music, literature, or life-altering gadgets like the iPhone. In the process of determining the conditions by which golden ages of genius happened when and where they did, Weiner also uncovers intriguing anecdotes that serve to illuminate and humanize god-like “characters” like Michelangelo, Beethoven, and Freud. He likewise stumbles upon answers to compelling questions like, why does genius seem like such a boy’s club? I am one of those people who dog-ear pages that contain things I find particularly interesting, and few pages of this book remained intact. There are enough fascinating and fun factoids in The Geography of Genius to keep you supplied at cocktail parties and around water coolers for years. But aside from that, it documents a moving quest that wasn’t undertaken just to satisfy a journalist’s curiosity. Weiner is a father and while it’s supposedly “too late for him,” his young daughter can still reap the lessons he learned from his travels, from defining genius, and apply them to her life. I would argue it isn’t too late for any of us. –Erin Kodicek "A witty, entertaining romp. Weiner’s vivid descriptions of modern-day life in each locale make the spots feel like must-visit destinations.” — The New York Times Book Review “There are some writers whose company is worth keeping, whatever the subject… And Mr. Weiner is blessed with this gift. He is a prober and questioner, a big-hearted humanist who will always take a colorful, contradictory reality over some unfounded certainty.” — Wall Street Journal "A global odyssey that seeks to discover why geniuses gather in certain places during certain eras and why these hot spots burn out, often after a half-century of grand achievements. Weiner is a superb travel guide: funny, knowledgeable, self-deprecating and always up for sharing a bottle of wine." — Washington Post " The Geography of Genius is witty, informative, and compulsively readable. Whether you’re getting genius tips from Freud in Vienna or hearing the secrets of high-tech powerhouses in Silicon Valley, you’ll emerge smarter after reading this delightful travelogue of ingenuity." — Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of To Sell Is Human and Drive "It’s rare to read a book that makes you laugh and learn, but Eric Weiner has done it again. This witty, wise explorer offers fascinating insights on how culture has inspired creativity across the ages—ripe for chats at water coolers and cocktail parties—and offers a practical map for how we can all become a bit more inventive." — Adam Grant, Wharton professor and bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals "Eric Weiner has single-handedly invented a new nonfiction genre in which a brilliant and hilarious writer leaves his home and family to circle the globe in search of the answer to a timeless question. The Geography of Genius is an intellectual odyssey, a traveler’s diary, and a comic novel all rolled into one. Smart, original, and utterly delightful, this is Weiner’s best book yet." — Daniel Gilbert, Harvard professor and bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness “An entertaining and thought-provoking book, a combination of history and travelogue… Part of the book's charm stems from the pure joy of experiencing these places alongside a narrator like Weiner… His wry wit shines through as he drinks sublime tea in China and contemplates a coffin collar in an Edinburgh museum; as he interviews figures such as Jack Ma, a Hangzhou native who founded multibillion dollar company Alibaba; and as he wanders the Ringstrasse of Vienna and the strip malls of Silicon Valley, pondering the conditions that lead to genius.” — Christian Science Monitor "Why do certain places produce a spontaneous eruption of creativity? What made Athens and Florence and Silicon Valley? This witty and fun book has an insight in every paragraph. It’s a charming mix of history and wisdom cloaked as a rollicking travelogue filled with colorful characters." — Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of The Innovators and Steve Jobs "Weiner is an affable tour guide and a lively, witty writer in the style of Bill Bryson; the connections he makes between places of genius are sharp and sometime unexpected." — Booklist “Informative and dryly witty, Weiner's odyssey is both an insightful examination of genius and a call to readers to explore their own untapped creative resources.” — Shelf Awareness (starred review) “Fun and thought provoking.” — Miami Herald "Weiner illustrates the power that culture and location can lend to creative efforts. Using a series of well-crafted travel essays the author propels readers across the globe… A welcome read for lovers of geography, history of geography, historical travel, travelogues, and the history of science." — Library Journal (starred review) “Well read, thoughtful and above all curious, Weiner invites the reader to explore a satisfying take on a meaningful topic while also enjoying daily pleasures in cities around the world.” — BookPage.com "In the genial style of Bill Bryson, Weiner scouts the world looking for places that have spawned geniuses." — Kirkus Reviews Eric Weiner is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Geography of Bliss and The Geography of Genius , as well as the critically acclaimed Man Seeks God and, his latest book, The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers . A former foreign correspondent for NPR, he has reported from more than three dozen countries. His work has appeared in the New Republic , The Atlantic , National Geographic , The Wall Street Journal , and the anthology Best American Travel Writing . He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and daughter. For more information, visit: EricWeinerBooks.com. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • “An intellectual odyssey, a traveler’s diary, and a comic novel all rolled into one. Smart, original, and utterly delightful.” —Daniel Gilbert, Harvard professor and bestselling author of
  • Stumbling on Happiness
  • “A charming mix of history and wisdom cloaked as a rollicking travelogue.” —Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of
  • Steve Jobs
  • Travel the world with Eric Weiner, the
  • New York Times
  • bestselling author of
  • The Geography of
  • Bliss
  • , as he journeys from Athens to Silicon Valley—and throughout history, too—to show how creative genius flourishes in specific places at specific times.In
  • The Geography of Genius,
  • acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. He explores the history of places, like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley, to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity. And, with his trademark insightful humor, he walks the same paths as the geniuses who flourished in these settings to see if the spirit of what inspired figures like Socrates, Michelangelo, and Leonardo remains. In these places, Weiner asks, “What was in the air, and can we bottle it?” This link can be traced back through history: Darwin’s theory of evolution gelled while he was riding in a carriage. Freud did his best thinking at this favorite coffee house. Beethoven, like many geniuses, preferred long walks in the woods. Sharp and provocative,
  • The Geography of Genius
  • redefines the argument about how genius came to be. His reevaluation of the importance of culture in nurturing creativity is an informed romp through history that will surely jumpstart a national conversation.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(210)
★★★★
25%
(175)
★★★
15%
(105)
★★
7%
(49)
★
23%
(162)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Unlike anything I expected... definitely not a textbook.

To read Geography of Genius is to travel through space and time to the backdrop behind some of the well known names throughout history.

Tucked within Geography are snippets of Genius, small golden threads woven in to the fabric that could easily be overlooked by the casual glance. 'No, she says, talent alone was not enough. "You also need marketing. Beethoven wouldn't be known as a genius if he wasn't good at marketing. Mozart had a built-in marketing machine with his father. " The notion of the lone genius, she agrees, is a folktale, a story we like to tell ourselves. '(P 239) This truth is something I've been trying to get a friend to understand awhile, now I understand it even better than before.

Don't expect to pick up Geography and read it in a single sitting. Geography is the book that should reside on the coffee table to be picked up here and there when segments of time allow digesting fragments to find hidden wisdom.
26 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

The value of this book increases as you near the end

First of all, this book does strike one as being a bit of a travelogue, rather than the historic analysis that the title presumes it to be, but I hung on through the opening chapters and began to find more correlations and soft conclusions as the observations and comparisons mounted. Plus, I basically agree with Weiner’s contention that (a society) gets the geniuses that it demands and deserves. To someone who hasn’t read the book that may sound like a flimsy statement, but I feel it holds a core truth worthy of deeper appreciation and application.

This book could be of tremendous importance to anyone working to develop a community culture in the arts, sciences, technology, ecology, vinology, industry, etc.
15 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

How and why “certain places, at certain times, produce a bumper crop of brilliant minds and good ideas. The question is why.”

As I began to read this immensely entertaining as well as highly informative book, I was again reminded of picaresque novels such as Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra’s Don Quixote and Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, pilgrimages such as John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, and journeys of discovery such as William Least Heat Moon’s Blue Highways and Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island and The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain. Eric Weiner incorporates elements of these genres while sharing his efforts to locate “the world’s most creative places from ancient Athens to Silicon Valley.”

The word “genius” has been so widely and shallowly applied that it now means whatever those who use it think it means. Weiner is speaking of genius “in the creative sense — as the highest form of creativity. My favorite definition of creative genius comes from the researcher and artificial intelligence expert Margaret Boden. The creative genius, she says, is someone with ‘the ability to come up with ideas that are new, surprising, and valuable.’” Rather than asking “What is creativity?” however, Weiner suggests that a much better question is “[begin italics] Where [end italics] is creativity?” That is, in which cultural environments throughout history was creativity most likely to thrive? Why? And what are the most valuable lessons to be learned from each?

Weiner explains, “I’ve selected six historic places of genius, as well as one current one. Some are huge metropolises, such as Vienna of 1900; others, such as Renaissance Florence, are tiny by modern standards. one, such as ancient Athens, are well-known; others such as nineteenth-century Calcutta, less so. Each of these places, though, represented an apex of achievement.” Add Hangzhou, Edinburgh, and Silicon Valley to that covey of seven locations. “Like all cultures, family culture can either cultivate creativity or squelch it…Creativity, like charity, begins at home. As I set out on my journey [accompanied by his reader], one in which I will traverse continents and centuries, I vow to keep this important truth in mind.”

These are among the several dozen passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Weiner’s coverage:

o Genius and Geniuses (Pages 2-3, 8-9, 17-18, 68-69, 84-85, 126-127, 148-149, and 287-288)
o Florence (7-9, 97-109, 112-139, 295-296, 318-319, and 323-325)
o Creativity (7-11, 103-104, 113-114, 161-168, 274-278, and 323-326)
o Greece (13-18, 40-41, 43-52, and 54-63)
o Athens (15-17, 19-34, 43-63, 86-87, 116-117, 156-157, 318-319, and 323-326)
o Socrates (19-20, 31-34, 36-38, 61-62, 48-49, and 324-325)
o Scotland (42-43, 142-=153, 153-159, 165-169, and 171-183)
o Hangzhou (65-75, 87-89, and 318-319)
o China (68-75, 77-80, 82-95, 288-289, and 317-318)
o Great Britain (75-79 82-83, and 253-254)
o Florence and the Arts (97-100, 102-104, 118-121, 123-125, 129-130, and 133-138)
o Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance (111-114 and 125-126)
o Edinburgh (141-144, 146-170, 172-174, 178-182, 193-194, and 318-319)
o Calcutta (185-195, 201-205, and 210-215)
o India (186-195 and 201-207)
o Culture (196-197 and 246-248)
o Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (221-229 and 236-240)
o Vienna (226-239, 251-267, and 276-285)
o Environment (229-230, 236-238, and 280-281)
o Ludwig von Beethoven (234-239 and 241-246)
o Sigmund Freud (239-278)
o Ethnic diversity and creativity (256-257)
o Silicon Valley (288-319)

Weiner observes, “For me, cafés are a kind of second home, a prime example of what sociologist Ray Oldenburg calls a ‘great good place.’ The food and drink are nearly irrelevant, or nearly so. What matters is the atmosphere — not the table cloths or the furniture but a more tangible ambience, once that encourages guilt-0free lingering and strikes just the right balance of background din and contemplative silence.” Obviously, he could not return in time and roam such gathering places in six of the locations but he could — and did — gain a clearer sense of what could roughly be characterized as “the soul” of each. In Athens, for example, the “great good place” he found is The Bridge. “An appropriate name, I decide, since I’m attempting the quixotic task of bridging the centuries.” He eventually found the answer to what he characterizes as “the Great Greek Mystery”: What made this place shine? In fact, there are different answers in the other locations but they also share much in common. What? Read the book. Details are best revealed within the narrative, in context.

Ever since Francis Galton coined the term “nature versus nurture,” people have debated the relative merits of each. Weiner’s response? “It’s a silly argument, and unnecessary. Creativity doesn’t happen ‘in here’ or ‘out there’ but in the spaces in between. Creativity is a [begin italics] relationship [end italics], one that unfolds at the intersection of person and place. This intersection, like all such crossroads, is a dangerous, unforgiving place. You have to pay attention, slow down, and stay alert for the idiots out there. It’s worth the risk, though, for the humble intersection, be it in ancient Athens or a strip-mall Sunnyvale, is the true genius loci. The place where genius lives.”

Many years ago, one of the French Romantic poets (probably Baudelaire) was asked how to write a poem. He paused for several thoughtful moments, then replied “Draw a birdcage and leave the door open. Then you have to wait. You may have to wait for quite a while. Be patient. Eventually, if you’re very lucky, a bird will fly in the door. Then you erase the cage.” I was reminded of that anecdote as I read Eric Weiner’s brilliant book, especially his comments about the “intersection” at which a genius and a place are combined. My own opinion is, if those whom we regard as a genius today were to be relocated to ancient Athens or Renaissance Florence, or if Pericles and Leonardo da Vinci were relocated to Silicon Valley, we would still include them among those who possess “the ability to come up with ideas that are new, surprising, and valuable.”
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Not really about how geography effects genius, but enjoyable read

"The Geography of Genius" is a travelogue. The author described his experiences as he visited seven cities. He visited historic sites and mused over coffee, tea, or alcohol about why these places had a cultural Golden Age. It's not actually about geography, but places, and the similarities these places had at the time of their golden ages.

We also get brief biographies of several of the geniuses that the author admires and details about what the city was like at the time of their golden age. His definition of "genius" varied throughout the book, but it primarily referred to talented people with lasting name recognition whose actions had an enduring impact on society. He mainly focused on philosophy, painting, and music, though science and technology get a nod.

The author visited Athens, Greece (to explore the time of Plato, Socrates, etc.); Hangzhou, China (969-1276 AD); Florence, Italy (for the Renaissance); Edinburgh, Scotland (for the Scottish Enlightenment in the second half of the 18th century); Calcutta, India (1840-1920s for the Bengal Renaissance); Vienna, Austria (for music in the 1800s and psychology in 1900-1914); and Silicon Valley in USA. The author had a lighthearted, entertaining approach which made the book an enjoyable read.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Full throttle ahead

This is a delightful book about everything that is (considered by Weiner) a product of genius, written with an attractive writing style, a great sense of wit and humour, and, dare one say, a dash of genius?

Weiner embarked on a journey through the world, stepping in and out of a time machine as he goes. The result is an enlightening study of all facets of brilliance. He goes to Greece to learn that we are all Greek – our learning, language, and thought, all have Greek roots.

He goes to Hangzhou, and there he learns about the genius that is the city. He enters the city’s pothole to the past – Xi Hu (West Lake) to gather his materials. His account is fascinating. He compares the products of Hangzhou with Switzerland as Graham Greene described – ‘They had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock!’ Weiner quickly corrected that misinformation – the Germans, not the Swiss, invented the cuckoo clock.

Weiner visits Florence, Vienna, Calcutta and the Silicon Valley to complete his tour of the genius in this world. In these places he provides an impressionistic account of his subject. With art in Florence and music in Vienna, he tells us how the genius transforms culture. Music was a way of giving vent to political sentiments – ‘What cannot be said is sung’. The stories from the Silicon Valley can be encapsulated in one of the stories, commonly referred to as ‘The Egg of Columbus’. If you have not heard that one, your enjoyment should not be spoiled by an eager reviewer lacking in genius.
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Interesting, but not convincing

The author seems to think that locale plays some part in producing geniuses, a proposition I don’t agree with.

That said, this is a fun – but not serious – look at a number of locales that, at different times, have attracted groups of talented people, including some who could fairly be called geniuses.

Ostensibly, according to the author, it is the locale, the city, that is responsible for genius.

Nope. Detroit attracted many geniuses and droves of other bright people who initially revolved around Henry Ford, a true and very eccentric genius. Whether they came to work for Ford, supply Ford or compete with Ford, it was Ford who made the great Detroit of the first half of the 20th Century. Had Ford moved to Paducah, Kentucky, then it probably would have been Paducah that became the center of the car universe.

Conversely, the two true geniuses who invented manned powered flight lived in Dayton, Ohio. The Wright brothers established a number of business operations in Dayton, Ohio. But, with the exception of the military establishments that located there, the geniuses of the aviation industry – Donald Douglas, Glenn Curtiss, Glen Martin, William Boeing, Walter, Clyde Cessna and so many others - were widely dispersed throughout the United States

Chicago got the geniuses who organized the logistics of the railroads, built the cars and convert cows and pigs into consumables.

But no matter: Geography Of Genius is an entertaining tour of aspects of genius and will keep you occupied for a few hours.

Jerry
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Five Stars

Another surprisingly excellent book by the Weiner! Worth a read - and a good think.
1 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Creativity on a world stage in place and time -- reading enjoyment and learning a lot at the same time

Eric Weiner takes us on an immense journey in both place and time to explore instances of the emergence of creative genius in world history.

He does so with a personable, felicitous and witty (humorous, self-deprecating) writing style fortified by copious scholarship. The latter which he presents absorbingly, effortlessly and totally devoid of tedium. I felt he included me (the reader) in an intimate conversation of what he discovered on his journeys and studies. He is a consummate storyteller with an exceptional capacity to discern and express pertinent cultural nuances. I could not help but think of the likes of Margaret Mead with her penetrating insights of the human condition.

What a pleasurable, engaging and informative read!
1 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

A unique way of thinking about, writing about the world and its genius individuals.

A unique way of thinking about, writing about the world and its genius individuals.
1 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

I found this very interesting and informative, I had ...

I found this very interesting and informative, I had been to Athens, Florence and Vienna and it enhanced my memories of my
visits there. I was well aware of the contributions of the Scots of Edinburgh and Glasgow, but the book added to my understanding
of the Northern Renaissance.
1 people found this helpful

Related Books