Alternative Textbooks Have Been Available For Teaching Introductory Economics For Decades

"It is true that we cannot, in the time available, teach every- thing that we would like. But why do we pick out for treatment just that selection of topics that is least likely to raise any questions of fundamental importance?" -- Joan Robinson

Over the years, many have proposed textbooks for introductory economics. Some of these are supplementary readings. I include introductions to both micro and macroeconomics:

• Richard Goodwin. 1970. Elementary Economics from the Higher Standpoint. Cambridge University Press.
• Joan Robinson and John Eatwell. 1973. An Introduction to Modern Economics. McGraw-Hill.
• Marc Linder. 1977. Anti-Samuelson (2 volumes). Urizen Books.
• Walsh, Vivian and Harvey Gram. 1980. Classical and Neoclassical Theories of General Equilibrium: Historical Origins and Mathematical Structure. Oxford University Press.
• Morishima, Michio. 1985. The Economics of Industrial Society. Cambridge University Press.
• Yanis Varoufakis. 1998. Foundations of Economics: A Beginner's Companion. Routledge
• Hugh Stretton. 2000. Economics: A New Introduction. Pluto Press.
• Steve Keen. 2002, 2011. Debunking Economics. Zed Books.
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• Tony Myatt and Rod Hill. 2010. The Economics Anti-Textbook: A Critical Thinker's Guide to Microeconomics. Zed Books.
• Thomas, Alex M. 2021. Macroeconomics: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press.
• Goodwin, Neva et. al. 2024. Essentials of Economics in Context, 2nd edition. Routledge.
• CORE Econ. 2024. The Economy 2.0: Economics for a Changing World.

I have not read a few of those myself. This list is confined to textbooks. Maybe a few are too advanced for introductions. Some are now of historical interest. Thomas' textbook, I guess, is focused on India. I do not include more popular writing. Most I've only dipped into.

Alternative approaches have been available for half a century.

Anti-Communist Literature

We live, dead to the land beneath us,
Ten steps away no one hears our speeches.

But where there’s so much as half a conversation
The Kremlin's mountaineer will get his mention.

His fingers are fat as grubs,
And the words, final as lead weights, fall from his mouth.

His cockroache whiskers leer
And his boot tops gleam.

Around him a rabble of ring-necked leaders -
Fawning half men for him to play with.

They whinny, purr or whine.
As he prates and points a finger.

One by one forging his laws, to be flung
Like horeseshoes at the head, the eye or the groin.

And every killing is a treat
For the broad-chested Ossete.

-- Oslip Mandelshtam

This is just a bibliography. I have posted bibliographies before. I want people that are sympathetic to socialism of some sort or another. As usual, I am limited to works in or translated to English. Some of these examples are not clearly anti-communist. These are a mixture of novels and non-fiction. Some of these I have not read. I am sure this selection can be expanded.

• Richard Crossman (ed.). 1949. The God that Failed
• Milovan Djilas. 1957. The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System. London: Thames and Hudson.
• Stefan Heym. 2022. Radek: A Novel. Monthly Review Press.
• Arthur Koestler. 1941. Darkness at Noon. Macmillan
• Janos Kornai. 1992. The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism. Princeton University Press.
• Nadezhda Mandelshtam. 1999. Hope Against Hope: A Memoir. Random House.
• George Orwell. 1945. Animal Farm.
• Boris Pasternak. 1957. Doctor Zhivago. New York: Pantheon Books.
• Francis Spufford. 2012. Red Plenty. Graywolf Press.
• Eugene Zamiatin. 1924. We

How Would Socialism Work?

On Another Topic, with an Appearance by Rutger Bregman.

This post does not answer the question, but merely provides a bibliography. I have not read everything below. I suppose this is something of a hodge podge. I include a book from Peter Kropotkin, even though it is much older than the remaining non-fiction works, since I am currently one third, maybe, through it.

• Novels (Ken Macleod, in The Cassini Division has a more complete list as chapter titles.)
• Edward Bellamy. 1888. Looking Backward.
• Ursula K. Leguin. 1974 The Dispossessed.
• William Morris. 1890. News from Nowhere.
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman. 1915. Herland. Apparently this is one of a genre of feminist utopias.
• Francis Spufford. 2010. Red Plenty.
• Analyses and detailed proposals.
• Michael Albert. 2003. Parecon: Life After Capitalism.
• Rutger Bregman. 2017. Utopia for Realists: The Case for a Universal Basic Income.
• Gerald Cohen. 2009. Why Not Socialism?
• Theodore Burczak. 2006. Socialism after Hayek.
• Paul Cockshott and Allin Cottrell. 1993. Towards a New Socialism.
• David Ellerman. 2021. Neo-Abolitionism: Abolishing Human Rentals in Favor of Workplace Democracy.
• Geoffrey Hodgson. 2019. Is Socialism Feasible? Torwards an Alternative Future.
• Bruno Jossa. 2020. Managing the Cooperative Enterprise: The Rise of Worker-Controlled Firms.
• Janos Kornai. 1992. The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism.
• Peter Kropotkin. 1892. The Conquest of Bread.
• Guinevere Liberty Nell. 2010. Rediscovering Fire: Basic Economic Lessons from the Soviet Experiment to Eliminate the Market.
• Alex Nove. 1983. The Economics of Feasible Socialism.
• David Schweickart. 2002. After Capitalism.
• Joseph Stiglitz. 1996. Whither Socialism.
• Philippe Van Parijs. 2019. Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy.

There is no scarcity of informed ideas on how a better society might function.

Selective Bibliography For The TSSI

is there a book with a focus exclusively on the TSSI more recent than the 2015 one in this list?

• Armstrong, Phil (2020). Can Heterodox Economics Make a Difference? Conversations with Key Thinkers Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
• Potts, Nick and Andrew Kliman (eds.) (2015). Is Marx's Theory of Profit Right? The Simultaneous-Temporalist Debate. Lanham: Lexington Books.
• Kliman, Andrew (2007). Reclaiming Marx's "Capital": A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency. Lanham: Lexington Books.
• Freeman, Alan, Andrew Kliman, and Julian Wells (eds.) (2004). The New Value Controversy and the Foundation of Economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
• Freeman, Alan and Gulielmo Carchedi (eds.) (1996). Marx and Non-Equilibrium Economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

I am not sure the first should be in this list. It is a collection of interviews with economists, including Kliman and Potts. The second has articles by such critics as Simon Mohun, Roberto Veneziani, and Robert Paul Wolff. The third includes articles by David Laibman and Paul Cockshott & Allin Cottrell, among many others. None have anything by Gary Mongiovi, as far as I can see. In general, I oppose the TSSI.

Textbooks for Post-Sraffian Price Theory

This post provides a list of textbooks:

• Syed Ahmad (1991). Capital in Economic Theory: Neo-classical, Cambridge, and Chaos, Edward Elgar.
• Christian Bidard (2004). Prices, Reproduction, Scarcity, Cambridge University Press.
• Duncan K. Foley, Thomas R. Michl, and Daniele Tavani.(2019). Growth and Distribution (2nd edition), Harvard University Press.
• Richard M. Goodwin (1970). Elementary Economics from the Higher Standpoint, Cambridge University Press.
• Steve Keen (2011). Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor Dethroned? (Second edition). Zed Books.
• Heinz D. Kurz and Neri Salvadori (1995). Theory of Production: A Long-Period Analysis, Cambridge University Press
• Arrigo Opocher and Ian Steedman (2015). Full Industry Equilibrium: A Theory of the Industrial Long Run, Cambridge University Press.
• Luigi L. Pasinetti (1977). Lectures on the Theory of Production, Columbia University Press
• Fabio Petri (2021). Microeconomics for the Critical Mind, Springer.
• Joan Robinson and John Eatwell (1973). An Introduction to Modern Economics, McGraw-Hill.
• Alessandro Roncaglia (2006) The Wealth of Ideas: A History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press.
• Ernesto Screpanti and Stefano Zamagni (2005) An Outline of the History of Economic Thought (Second edition). Oxford University Press.
• Eric Sheppard and Trevor J. Barnes (1990) The Capitalist Space Economy: Geographical Analysis After Ricardo, Marx, and Sraffa. Routledge.
• Yanis Varoufakis (1998). Foundations of Economics: A Beginner's Companion. Routledge.
• Vivian Walsh and Harvey Gram (1980). Classical and Neoclassical Theory of General Equilibrium: Historical Origins and Mathematical Structure, Oxford University Press.
• J. E. Woods (1990). The Production of Commodities: An Introduction to Sraffa, Humanities Press International.

Some of the above are out of print. I assume a reader who knows that one needs to read with paper and pen in hand. I deliberately do not include books by Christopher Bliss, Edwin Burmeister, or Avinash Dixit on growth theory, since I want to emphasize critics of mainstream economics. Nothing against them, and I could probably extend the above list with some thought. I have provided related lists before:

• List from 2006
• Lists of collections (not textbooks).
• Critiques of mainstream textbooks. I do not have the above Varoufakis textbook in this list.
• Important books (not textbooks) in the development of marginalist economics.
• List appended to post in 2020
• Some books are mentioned in this list of fields impacted by the CCC.

I suppose one might have other lists more Marxist than any of the above, a list for Leontief input-output analysis, a list for ecological economics, and a list with more emphasis on the history of economics.

Textbooks have been available for half a century that teach correct price theory.

Paradigming Is Easy

Some publishers have made it easy to get an overview of currently existing paradigms in economics, including non-neoclassical paradigms:

• Modern Cambridge Economics: Each book is by an expert on the selected topic. (Previous mention here.)
• Schools of Thought in Economics: From Edward Elgar, each book is edited by an expert and consists of reprints of important papers from that school.
• International Library of Critical Writings in Economics: From Edward Elgar as well, each book is also an edited collection. Many of these are more on a field than on a school, but I like number 21, on the Post Keynesian theory of growth and distribution.
• M. E. Sharpe: I do not have a book series for this important publisher of heterodox economics, including the journal Challenge.

The books in the Edward Elgar series are probably too expensive for most individual purchases. Perhaps you can request some of interest from an academic library. Some of these books are more than a decade old, with articles in the collections going back even more decades. But, by looking at authors and journals, you can can get a hint of where to look for more contemporary work in a school of interest.

Compare and contrast Paul Krugman on this topic.

Phyllis Deane, An Editor Of The Modern Cambridge Economics Series

Matias Vernengo has noted the passing of Phyllis Deane.

I think of Deane as a historian of economics, based on her 1978 book The Evolution of Economic Ideas. In it, she portrays economics as a succession of struggles between competing paradigms, in Thomas Kuhn's sense of the word. Economics was in a pre-paradigm state before Adam Smith. She contrasts this approach to history with an approach emphasizing refinements of analysis, as in Joseph Schumpeter's posthumous history.

But I want to point out another role she took on. Her book was the first in the Modern Cambridge Economics series. And she was co-editor, with Joan Robinson, of that series. She was later co-editor with Geoffrey Harcourt and Jan Kregel. As of Asimakopulos 1991 book, the series consisted of:

• Phyllis Deane, The Evolution of Economic Ideas
• Joan Robinson, Aspects of Development and Underdevelopment
• A. K. Bagchi, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment
• Éprime Eshag, Fiscal and Monetary Policies and Problems in Developing Countries
• Michael Ellman, Socialist Planning
• Colin Rogers, Money, Interest and Capital
• A. Asimakopulos, Keynes's General Theory and Accumulation

Here is the original introduction to this series of books:

"The modern Cambridge Economic series...is designed in the same spirit and with the similar objectives to the series of Cambridge Economic Handbooks launched by Maynard Keynes soon after the First World War. Keynes' series, as he explained in his introduction, was intended 'to convey to the ordinary reader and to the uninitiated student some conception of the general principles of thought which economists now apply to economic problems'. He went on to describe its authors as, generally speaking, 'orthodox members of the Cambridge School of Economics' drawing most of their ideas and prejudices from 'the two economists who have chiefly influenced Cambridge thought for the past fifty years, Dr. Marshall and Professor Pigou' and as being 'more anxious to avoid obscure forms of expression than difficult ideas'.

This series of short monographs is also aimed at the intelligent undergraduate and interested general reader, but it differs from Keynes' series in three main ways: first in that it focuses on aspects of economics which have attracted the particular interest of economists in the post Second War World era; second in that its authors, though still sharing a Cambridge tradition of ideas, would regard themselves as deriving their main inspiration from Keynes himself and his immediate successors, rather than from the neoclassical generation of the Cambridge school; and third in that it envisages a wider audience than readers in mature capitalist economies, for it is equally aimed at students in developing countries whose problems and whose interactions with the rest of the world have helped to shape the economic issues which have dominated economic thinking in recent decades.

Finally, it should be said that the editors and authors of this Modern Cambridge Economics series represent a wider spectrum of economic doctrine than the Cambridge School of Economics to which Keynes referred in the 1920s. However, the object of the series is not to propagate particular doctrines. It is to stimulate students to escape from conventional theoretical ruts and to think for themselves on live and controversial issues."

-- Joan Robinson and Phyllis Deane

Book Series

Any number of publishers have published series of books over the last couple of decades of interest to heterodox economists. Some are, I think, targeted for reference libraries - who else can afford them¹? Some collect papers for specific themes or schools of thought. And various publishers specialize in such.

But here I want to focus on the Modern Cambridge Economics Series. These books seem to be targeted for the more introductory student. They consist of, as far as I can tell:

• A. Asimakopulos (1991) Keynes's General Theory and Accumulation²
• Amiya Kumar Bagchi (1982) The Political Economy of Underdevelopment
• John Cornwall and Wendy Cornwall (2007) Capitalist Development in the Twentieth Century
• Phyllis Deane(1978) The Evolution of Economic Ideas²
• Michael Ellman (1989) Socialist Planning
• Eprime Eshag (1984) Fiscal and Monetary Policies and Problems in Developing Countries
• Frederick S. Lee (2006) Post Keynesian Price Theory
• Joan Robinson (1979) Aspects of Development and Underdevelopment
• Colin Rogers (1989) Money, Interest and Capital: A Study in the Foundations of Monetary Theory²

Phyllis Deane and Joan Robinson were the original editors. Phyllis Deane, Geoffrey Harcourt, and Jan Kregel were the editors after a later relaunch.

¹Edward Elgar has a series on Schools of Thought in Economics, another series called The Elgar Companion to ..., and The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics. Palgrave Macmillan had themed extracts from the New Palgrave (with some original entries) and is currently publishing their Great Thinkers in Economics series. (This last series is more introductory and affordable by some students.) Routledge has their multi-volume Critical Assessments of Leading Economists collections and, for the Austrian school, the Foundations of the Market Economy Series. Back in the 1970s, Penguin had the Penguin Modern Economic Readings collections. (Links are to information about random books in a series.)

² I have read and enjoyed these.

Textbooks For Teaching Non-Neoclassical Economics

Does an ideological or normative bias exist in mainstream teaching or practice? I think Gunnar Myrdal's The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory is still worth reading on this topic. Much good stuff has been written on this topic since, too.

In my "Creating Two-Good Reswitching Examples", I list some textbooks for teaching the Cambridge Capital Controversy:

• S. Ahmad (1991). Capital in Economic Theory: Neo-classical, Cambridge, and Chaos, Edward Elgar
• C. Bidard (2004). Prices, Reproduction, Scarcity, Cambridge University Press
• E. Burmeister (1980). Capital Theory and Dynamics, Cambridge University Press
• R. M. Goodwin (1970). Elementary Economics from the Higher Standpoint, Cambridge University Press
• S. Keen (2001). Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences Pluto Press
• H. D. Kurz and N. Salvadori (1995). Theory of Production: A Long-Period Analysis, Cambridge University Press
• L. L. Pasinetti (1977). Lectures on the Theory of Production, Columbia University Press
• J. Robinson and J. Eatwell (1973). Introduction to Modern Economics, McGraw-Hill
• V. Walsh and H. Gram (1980). Classical and Neoclassical Theory of General Equilibrium: Historical Origins and Mathematical Structure, Oxford University Press.
• J. E. Woods (1990). The Production of Commodities: An Introduction to Sraffa, Humanities Press International

These textbooks exhibit a range of rigor, level of mathematics, and assumptions about background. Burmeister's sympathies are clearly with the neoclassicals.

The above list reflects my focus on the CCC. But other focii are possible. Apparently David Krep's A Course in Microeconomic Theory is an introductory graduate text organized by game theory. In his competition, game theory is confined to selected chapters, instead of being an organizing principle.

I have seen references to some considerably less mainstream textbooks. Robin Hahnel's The ABC's of Political Economy: A Modern Approach and Hugh Stretton's Economics: A New Introduction are two I have seen some say nice things about.

There are more textbooks for Post Keynesians. A Marxist would have another list of textbooks. So a supply has been available for economists to teach something different. I suggest if the demand had been seen, even more textbooks would be forthcoming; one can find parts of ones put up here and there on the Web. David Colander is worth reading on the question of why mainstream economists do not alter their teaching, but I've already gone on long enough.