Description:
Much like Vladimir Lenin, his onetime rival for the leadership of the Bolshevik party during its formative years, Alexander Bogdanov (1873-1928) was a visionary. In two science fiction novels set on Mars, Bogdanov imagined a future in which the workers of the world, liberated from capitalist exploitation, create a "physiological collective" that rejuvenates and unites its members through regular blood exchanges. But Bogdanov was not merely a dreamer. He worked tirelessly to popularize and realize his vision, founding the first research institute devoted to the science of blood transfusion.
In A Martian Stranded on Earth, the first broad-based book on Bogdanov in English, Nikolai Krementsov examines Bogdanov's roles as revolutionary, novelist, and scientist, presenting his protagonist as a coherent thinker who pursued his ideas in a wide range of venues. Through the lens of Bogdanov's involvement with blood studies on one hand, and of his fictional and philosophical writings on the other, Krementsov offers a nuanced analysis of the interactions between scientific ideas and societal values.
Brief description: Nikolai Krementsov is associate professor at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. He is the author of several books, including The Cure, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Review Quotes: "[This] compact biography is the first to place Bogdanov's three personae--literary, philosophical, and scientific--vividly and accurately in context."--Muireann Maguire "Times Literary Supplement"