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1 results

  • 2 - The Problem of the Great All-Knowing Answer Man

  • Zev Eleff, Gratz College
  • Book:
    The Greatest of All Time
    Published online:
    23 January 2025
    Print publication:
    06 March 2025, pp 47-80

  • Summary

    This chapter explores the American discourse surrounding three scientists/inventors: Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Albert Einstein. All three are regarded as “great” in the areas of science and quantitative intelligence. Due to that, each is also elevated more broadly into wisdom curators, individuals who ought to possess great answers to questions beyond their expertise. These instances betoken Americans’ belief that greatness in one field ought to translate into some near-mystical sort of intuition in all others. In all three cases, greatness was remarkably compromised. America’s reaction and reassessment suggest something very important about the contours of great men in the United States.