Creativity

Jan Løhmann Stephensen packs a surprising amount of intellectual history into sixty pages, tracing how creativity evolved from a Renaissance idea about individual genius into a buzzword employers deploy to squeeze more output from workers. He draws on artists from Van Gogh to Bruce Springsteen to argue that creativity has always been collective and dynamic — never the private property of a lone visionary. The strength here is accessibility: dense theory is translated into plain, engaging prose that moves quickly. The caveat is real: ideas arrive and then depart before they fully breathe, leaving curious readers wanting a much longer book. If you teach, make, lead teams, or simply wonder why every job posting demands creative thinkers, this sharp little monograph is a worthwhile hour or two. Worth it.