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Review title: Where is Vygotsky?
Product review: "Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist" by Fred Newman and Lois Holzman purports to be a clear introduction to Vygotsky and his ideas but it's actually a muddled, mish-mosh in which Vygotsky's discoveries get lost in a sea of philosophical, political, and psychological jargon. For example, the authors devote pages to discussing the "Zone of Proximal Development," a concept central to understanding Vygotsky's contributions to learning theory, but never bother to explain or define it for the reader. Moreover, the authors have an alarming axe to grind. Fired up by revolutionary zeal, they want to show that Vygotsky's ideas are thoroughly Marxian and are valueless in any other context. Reading the book has something of the feeling of being invited to a seminar on financial planning and then discovering that the seminar is a poorly disguised infomercial for an expensive and unremunerative annuity. Readers searching for a lucid introduction to Vygotsky should look elsewhere.
