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Italian culture might rightly be described as the pride and glory of the Western world. But how did this come about? What is the secret of Italian creative genius? In this short but captivating study (complete with 21 illustrations, 14 in color), Morris Berman argues that the key to it is the Italian ability to inject space, or movement, into static situations–whether in art, film, politics, or religion. In doing so, Italians from St. Francis to Federico Fellini were able to revolutionize their arenas of activity, and in so doing, the worlds in which they lived. And all of these legacies, as Professor Berman demonstrates, are still with us today.
Morris Berman’s Genio: The Story of Italian Genius is an intriguingly adroit introduction to some important facets of Italian genius. Eschewing the traditional names we so often see listed in these types of books, Berman has chosen those names of individuals who, famous that they are, may not be the first to come to mind. Hence Bernini and Caravaggio instead of Michelangelo and Leonardo; Fellini for sure, but we also now have Marinetti; Machiavelli, of course, but now we also have Gramsci; and, dulcis in fundo, St. Francis is here to represent a more kinder Catholicism. With this book, the English speaker is introduced to a more broad panorama of Italy’s history of its genio!
-Anthony Julian Tamburri, Dean, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
Other engaging works by Morris Berman include:
Spinning Straw Into Gold: Straight Talk for Troubled Times (one man’s meditation on the meaning of his life to date); Coming to Our Senses (a provocative analysis of the relationship between culture, mind, and body in the history of Western society), and Are We There Yet? (which analyzes what has gone wrong with the United States since its inception, and the problems we now face as a result).
