From: Alejandro Valle Baeza (valle@SERVIDOR.UNAM.MX)
Date: Thu Feb 03 2005 - 12:16:28 EST
Mensaje citado por: Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM: Hi Jerry, thank you for this valuable information. In my view is one of the most important thinks is didactic. I think is urgent to have a web page with information like you gave on this post. In my view ope-l archives are excellent but they need a complementary web page. Bibliographical section with information like you gave us would be very useful for anybody who visit such web page. Saludos Alejandro > Hi Alejandro: > > I still haven't had luck downloading and opening-up the Gouverneur > book, but I agree with you that there is a need for good introductory > texts and that writing a text requires special skills. > > Happily, there have been several other introductory texts written > in recent years including Charles Andrews' _From Capitalism to > Equality_ (Needle Press, 2000), N.S. Ranganayakamma's _An > Introduction to Marx's 'Capital'_ (Sweet Home Publications, 3 > volumes, 1999) and Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho _Marx's > Capital_ (4th ed., Pluto Press, 2004). Since the subject of > Gouverneur's book is on capitalism, rather than Marx's _Capital_, > it might be better suited for an introductory economics text than > the latter two books (which could be assigned for courses on Marx > or perhaps as 'supplementary' texts for other courses). > > _From Capitalism to Equality_ could be used in an introductory > course although I haven't used it for that purpose. Paul Z, didn't > you assign that book in 1 or more of your courses? How did it > go? > > Increasingly, more and more colleges in the US -- under the guise > of "standardization" -- have mandated specific (marginalist, of > course) texts for introductory courses. Is this also an international > trend? This obviously restricts one's ability to assign the text > that one prefers. In the past (before there was a "uniform" required > economics text) I had assigned a couple of radical introductory > economics texts -- Samuel Bowles and Richard Edwards > _Understanding Capitalism: Competition, Command, and Change in > the U.S. Economy_ (2nd ed., Harper Collins, 1993; I also used the > 1st edition) ) and Francis Green and Bob Sutcliffe _The Profit System_ > > (Penguin, 1987). Both are long since out-of-print. Of the 2 I much > preferred Bowles and Edwards because it really was laid out as a > text with definitions in the margins, understandable graphs, a glossary, > > etc. and was extremely well-written. It even had an instructor's > manual! OTOH, _The Profit System_ was far less expensive (with a > list price at the time of US$7.95). There were, of course, some > issues > on which I disagreed with the authors of both texts, but that's OK. I > don't mind interjecting my own perspective in class that differs with > the > authors of a text -- indeed, I think it is important from the > perspective of > encouraging the students to _critically_ engage the contents of a text > even when the text is progressive. > > For a class at Pratt Institute in the Fall on "Capitalism and > Socialism" > I've decided to try something new. I've decided to assign Katy Siegel > and Paul Mattick _Art Works: Money_ (Thames & Hudson, 2004) for > the capitalism part of the course. Their book is an _art text_ so this > will > be a bit of an experiment. I thought this was worth a try because the > overwhelming amount of the students who take the course are art and > design students. I'd like to use the _graphics_ in the text as a way > of > stimulating discussion about capitalism. It's an unconventional > approach > but I think it's important for faculty to try new things in the > classroom. > > Gouverneur's text has two _huge_ advantages over other heterodox > texts: students can download it for free and it is written in English, > French, and Spanish. In recent years I have attempted with some > success to substitute free online sources for expensive printed texts. > This is a move that has been welcomed with cheers and applause in > some of my classes! When you consider the price of some of the > standard texts, you will appreciate why there was this enthusiastic > response. In some areas, a lot of students are bilingual and having > the ability to assign a text that can be read in Spanish or French is > a distinct advantage. > > I'd be interested in knowing -- to the extent that listmembers are able > to and have assigned heterodox texts for introductory economics > courses -- what texts they use and what their experience has been. > > > In adition of that, Gouverneur's book has original material for > > understanding or develop Marxian thinking. I will give an example > > of this in a next post. > > Yes, please. > > In solidarity, Jerry > > > ------------------------------------------------- www.correo.unam.mx UNAMonos Comunicándonos
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