Principles of Political Economy - Third Edition

Reviewed by Mark Friedman, adjunct, Middlesex Community College on 5/29/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The book is comprehensive covering in depth economic theory, microeconomics, macroeconomics and international economics. There is an index, glossary and more such as a list of figures and tables.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book fairly presents contending economic theories including economic history. The book is a welcome addition to the repository of economics texts in that students may profit from learning there are other ways to approach economics than the neoclassical approach.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The examples and cases are relevant and more or less enduring such that the text will not have to be swapped out within a short period of time. In any event, the author has been quite diligent with developing new editions and the current edition is the third edition published 5/2020.

Clarity rating: 5

The writing is clear and each chapter has goals and objectives, summary of key points, key terms and problems for review. The chapters are not overly long and the font size is easy on the eyes.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is one solid piece of consistent and clear scholarship and does not deviate chapter to chapter.

Modularity rating: 5

There are subheadings, ample and clearly explained graphs and formulas and the writing flows easily.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The order of topics makes sense both from the larger Theory to Micro to Macro to International Economics as well as the organization within each section. To present ALL topics in typical neoclassical economics texts AND alternative schools would be mean a text at least twice as long (maybe longer) and this is obviously not very practical. Sensibly the author has selected those major topics.

Interface rating: 5

A minor point but the online version might use a link at the bottom to take the reader back to Contents.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical or otherwise writing errors are detected.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book is quite well-balanced and leans more toward theory and theorists and explanations of the theory with less focus on connecting theory to real-world examples. The section Following the Economic News connects theory to the real-world.

Comments

A very interesting book which I recommend highly. It's very impressive how the book is available in multiple formats such as epub, pdf, kindle, mobi. Some teachers and students might want answers to the Problems for Review but perhaps working them out is a true exercise in learning!