A Tale of Two Textbooks: Experiments in Genre

Author(s)
Kaiser, David I.
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Abstract
Though the notion of a scientific textbook has been around for almost three centuries, the category has hardly been stable. The plasticity of the textbook genre may be illustrated by recent variations as well as long-term trends. In this brief essay I examine two idiosyncratic but highly successful physics books, each published in the mid 1970s, whose production, marketing, and adoption reveal some of the slippage between such categories as textbook, scholarly monograph, and popular best seller.
Date issued
2012-03
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82907
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Science, Technology and Society
Journal
Isis
Publisher
University of Chicago Press/History of Science Society
Citation
Kaiser, David. “A Tale of Two Textbooks: Experiments in Genre.” Isis 103, no. 1 (March 2012): 126-138.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
00211753
15456994
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