Fracture

It has become well known that adversity at a young age can lead to a person becoming incredibly successful and exceptional in their field later in life. It seems that those who build a resilience in their formative years or become introverted through circumstances often outside of their control lead......more

Easily readable and fairly interesting, this is a textbook example of a horizontal argument. Parris looks to a wide range of biographies to make his argument that childhood trauma and recognised genius often go hand in hand. He gives a ton of examples of famous people through history, but without mo......more

While I enjoyed all of the childhood stories of famous people, I found it very hard to keep up with the account. For example he addresses the main person by their surname, then talks about their parents, then can jump to the main persons children, and then addresses the surname again… but it could b......more

Such an awesome book that argues for a link between trauma and genius or greatness. It is divided in such a scientific methodical manner, with hypotheses dealt with in different chapters. Within each chapter are many subheadings with examples of great historically prevalent people who support it. I ga......more

An interesting take on whether early trauma can be a positive. But without really going in to the fact that it can be just as much a negative. Interesting case studies, but how much real evidence?......more