Who are today’s creative talents, and where do they come from? This book provides a detailed genealogy: from Faust to Kandinsky, via Coco Chanel, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, to Silicon Valley technologists and innovators. In the space of a few years, we have gone from creative individuals, who produce unique works of art and ingenuity and answer only to themselves, to the creative class, which fosters innovation and designs products for the markets on which we all depend. Creative people are not a privileged category as much as the bearers of a spirit that generates universal effects and offers hope to the world. However, today’s creative souls lack structure and are oblivious to the long-standing tradition to which they nevertheless belong. How can we prevent this vast outburst of ingenuity from turning into banality, mass production or – worse still – a creative vacuum?

Paolo Perulli, an economic sociologist, formerly taught at the Universities of Eastern Piedmont, Venice, Paris, Lugano and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.