How creativity became the reigning value of our time
1 min read
Summary
The idea of “creativity” did not exist until the mid-19th century, and the first written use of the word in this sense dates from 1875, writes Samuel Franklin in “The Cult of Creativity: From the Artist to the Innovator.”
Before the 1950s, there were no articles, books, essays or other texts explicitly about creativity as a subject, and the word was only first used in this sense in the 1870s.
In his new book, Franklin explores how the concept of creativity as we know it today emerged in the post-WWII era in the US as a kind of cultural salve to offset the conformity, bureaucracy and suburbanization associated with American life at the time.
He argues that the idea offered a means to unleash individualism within order and revive the spirit of the lone inventor within the modern corporation.