This is a unique study, tracing the development of a branch of mathematics and its divergence due to political reasons. The theory of semigroups is a recent development--the term "semigroup" was not even coined until 1904, only a few years before the Revolution of 1917 and the beginning of the isolation of the academic world of the Soviet Union after Lenin's death. Most of the developments in ti took place after World War 2, when Soviet and Western scientists and mathematicians had almost no contact at all. As such, the traditions and methods of the theory evolved differently in East and West. This branch of mathematics can truly be called "Cold War Science". The author, after providing an historical overview of algebra in the early 20th century, looks at the mathematical developments in political context, giving us a spectacular description of the process of divergence of specific methods, areas of interest, and theoretical underpinnings of something that we would, a priori, consider to be politically neutral. The influence of isolation on the development of science is clearly demonstrated (in fact, one is reminded of biological evolutionary theory and clearly, parallels with speciation are in order here). An appendix includes an overview of the theory under investigation. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
