This book is the most comprehensive contribution to our understanding of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) yet undertaken. As a key to understanding the most potent influence on developmental theories since the beginning of this century, van der Veer and Valsiner explore Vygotsky's ideas through the course of his life, establishing links with his predecessors and contemporaries. Elaborate analysis of his social context allows detailed discussions of Vygotsky's indebtedness to literary scholarship (his career began with an essay on Hamlet), with psychoananlysis, Gestalt psychology and paedology. The authors show how close was his intellectual dependence on the international scientific community of the time and on contemporary creative endeavours of the fine arts. The Life and Work of Lev Vygotsky not only shows the extent to which Vygotsky's work can be further developed to be relevant to the end of the twentieth century but also opens up scope for a more detailed analysis of his contemporaries.