“By historic milestones and discoveries, yes, but also wrenching upheaval…Genius flourished under these conditions… but risk flourished, too.”
– Professor Ian Goldin, University of Oxford
While today’s turmoil – social, economic and cultural – seems unparalleled, that is far from the case.
From extreme tensions, new worlds emerge. Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press (1450s), Columbus’s discovery of the New World (1492), Vasco da Gama’s discovery of a sea route to Asia (1497), Copernicus’s revolutionary theories of a sun-centered cosmos (1510s) and other world-changing artistic, scientific and technological achievements all created immense opportunities – but, equally, shattered structures, ignited...