Baywood announces the forthcoming publication of a technical communication book, Stalinist Genetics: The Constitutional Rhetoric of T. D. Lysenko, by Dmitri Stanchevici
This book is an analysis of the rhetoric of T. D. Lysenko, the founder of a doctrine that dominated biology in the Stalinist Soviet Union, draws on Kenneth Burke and other rhetorical scholars and demonstrates how Lysenko's rhetoric emerged on the borderline between science and politics.
- (1888PressRelease) July 02, 2011 - Baywood Publishing Company announces the upcoming release of a new book in their Technical Communications Book Series entitled Stalinist Genetics: The Constitutional Rhetoric of T. D. Lysenko, by Dmitri Stanchevici (Department of English, University of Memphis).
ABOUT THE BOOK
Stalinist Genetics focuses on the rhetoric of T. D. Lysenko, the founder of an agrobiological doctrine (Lysenkoism) in the Stalinist Soviet Union. Using not only scientific but also political and ideological arguments, Lysenko achieved an official ban on Soviet Mendelian genetics. Though the ban was brief and Lysenkoism, as a leading biological doctrine, was eventually deposed in favor of Mendelism, Lysenkoism remains a paradigmatic example of pernicious political interference in science.
In this study, the critical orientation for reading Lysenko's major speeches is constitutional rhetoric. It combines Kenneth Burke's dialectic of constitutions and rhetoric of the subject. Painting a nuanced picture of intellectual, economic, ideological, and political life in the Soviet Union of the 1930s and 1940s, the book demonstrates how the rhetorics of Lysenkoism and Mendelism interacted with Stalinist culture in the fight for dominating Soviet science. The reader will learn how Lysenko's constitutional rhetoric created a space where scientific terms transformed into political and ideological ones, and vice versa. The book also shows how, in a dialectical flip, the Lysenkoist rhetoric eventually turned from tool to master. Contrary to Lysenko's intentions, his language gave his opponents, Soviet Mendelians, grounds on which to defend their science and criticize Lysenkoism. Stanchevici forcefully reasserts the blurriness of the boundaries between science and politics, and argues that scientific language reveals more plasticity and adaptability to the political situation than has hitherto been assumed.
Intended Audience: Scholars in rhetoric, history, and philosophy of science; graduate or upper-division undergraduate course in the rhetoric of science or technical communication
Format Information: ISBN 978-0-89503-402-1, 6" by 9", Cloth, 200 Pages
*Pre-Publication Price: $40.75; List Price: $47.95 (*postage and handling is required; please inquire for current rates)
More details here: http://baywood.com/books/previewbook.asp?id=978-0-89503-402-1
###
space
space
Satisfied Users & 
Approved Press Releases
Print
Email
Report Spam