Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Self-defence against the textbooks

One reason that we wrote The Economics Anti-Textbook was to help instructors deal with the bad features of the typical microeconomics textbook: the questions that are not asked, the attitudes that are insinuated, the hidden value judgements that lurk between the lines. As Tony's last post pointed out, the textbooks provide lots of room for a lecturer who is so inclined to comment critically about their content. The Economics Anti-Textbook provides some textual support to increase the credibility of the critique.
One of the main motives for me in working on this book was to write something to help students defend themselves against the formidable persuasive apparatus deployed against them. I should know; I fell for it myself when I was a student.
RH