Vygotsky and the Social Formation of Mind - Hardcover

Wertsch accomplishes an impressive task in this book, providing an enriching source on Vygotsky's ideas as well as constructively criticizing and extending them. An excellent analysis of Vygotsky's theory and it will certainly be enjoyed by those interested in the history and theory of psychology. But it also should be of great interest for those involved in the experimental study of language and cognition. -- Alex Kozulin "American Journal of Psychology" This book falls into three parts: a biographical sketch of "Vygotsky," an outline of his principal tenets, and Wertsch's own attempt to bring them up to date. His scholarship is exemplary: the book is the most detailed account in English of its subject's life and work. It will be welcomed by cognitive psychologists and students of development. -- P. N. Johnson-Laird "Times Literary Supplement" Clear, subtle, and always focused on the central issues...The book goes beyond Vygotsky's work and draws on other current research in cognitive studies, cross-cultural psychology, education, and work by linguists, philosophers, and students and colleagues of Vygotsky...It is a significant contribution by Wertsch to have synthesized the theory itself with such clarity, and more so to have brought it up to date with contemporary research on so many fields. -- Thomas S. Weisner "American Anthropologist" exemplary: the book is the most detailed account in English of its subject's life and work. It will be welcomed by cognitive psychologists and students of development. Wertsch presents the reader with what amounts to a sort of intellectual history of an individual of remarkable breadth and insight and, in doing so, has revealed himself to be a first-rate scholar as well.

of disciplines with which Vygotsky was concerned Wertsch shows how Vygotsky's approach provides a principled way to link the various strands of human science that seem more isolated than ever today.