The Polymath (Peter Burke)
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Polymath (Peter Burke)
| Full title | The Polymath: A Cultural History from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag |
|---|---|
| Author | Peter Burke |
| Published | 2020 |
| Pages | 352 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Burke’s cultural history of five hundred polymaths, from Leonardo to Sontag, and of the narrowing conditions that made each generation of them harder to produce. |
The Polymath (Peter Burke)
Where I heard about it
- @oprydai — recommended it on X, August 2025: “curious minds who refuse to fit in one box … perfect for generalists, creatives, and anyone who feels pulled in 10 directions” — “it traces history’s great multi-talented thinkers and asks what it means to master many fields in an age of specialization.”
About this edition
Distinct from the similarly titled The Polymath by Waqas Ahmed, also in the anti-library.
Connections
- Polymath — the idea, and the page both same-titled books hang off.
- The Polymath — Waqas Ahmed’s book of the same name, a manifesto rather than a history.
- Republic of Letters — the milieu in which the polymath was a normal career.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.