A colleague, who is under quite a bit of stress, begged me to help him write a textbook. Reluctantly I agreed. I really had no interest in the project. We did a couple chapters and an outline. Little, Brown was interested enough that they flew him out to Boston. He went up the ranks of editors until he got to the highest level. There, the head honcho told him that the project was unacceptable. The reason was that our outline did not conform to that of the McConnell book.
Also, does anybody remember the Spencer case? McGraw-Hill sued Spencer for plagiarizing McConnell. Spencer won the case on the grounds that the judge decided that all textbooks are plagiarisms. What was unique about the Mankiw textbook was the way it brought everything down to the simplest possible level, evading all the contradictions and even the complexity of economics. My first reaction to the book was that it reminded me of cotton candy -- all fluff. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
