The Ultimate Field Guide to the US Economy: A Compact and Irreverent Guide to Economic Life in America, New Updated Edition - Softcover

Center For Popular Economics; Folbre, Nancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565845781 ISBN 13: 9781565845787

Publisher: The New Press, 2000

Synopsis

The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy is the latest version of "the best and . . . least solemn guide to the dismal science you are likely soon to encounter" (John Kenneth Galbraith), revised and expanded with the most recent data. The book brings key policy issues to life, reflecting the collective wit and wisdom of the best economic literacy activists in the country. The Ultimate Field Guide tells you what you need to know about owners, workers, welfare and education, government spending, health, environment, macroeconomics, and the global economy. New charts on the increasing inequality of income and the deterioration of the natural environment point to problems facing the twenty-first century. Lively illustrations and wry cartoons make this book easy to read and hard to put down.

About this title

About the Author

Nancy Folbre, a MacArthur Fellow, is professor emerita of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is the the author of The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values and Saving State U: Why We Must Fix Public Higher Education; a co-author, with Jonathan Teller-Elsberg, James Heintz, and the Center for Popular Economics, of Field Guide to the U.S. Economy; and a co-author, with Randy Albelda, of The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual, all published by The New Press. Her academic books include For Love and Money: Care Provision in the U.S. and Greed, Lust, and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times's Economix blog.

Reviews

The authors, who are affiliated with the Center for Popular Economics at Amherst, state at the outset that "this book compiles useful information for non-economists (as well as students and teachers) who want to know more about the U.S. economy." Even more reader-friendly than the previous versions, this edition combines easy-to-read charts, graphs, and statistical compilations with short, pithy explanations and cartoons to make each section understandable. The explanation of how interest rates work is especially illuminating. The text, broken into ten chapters with headings like "Owners," "Workers," and "Macroeconomics," offers a wealth of statistical data. Unfortunately, the sources are all at the back, forcing the reader to flip back and forth. Still, this is a small quibble for such a helpful primer. Highly recommended for all school libraries (elementary through college) and public libraries.
-Richard S. Drezen, Washington Post News Research Ctr., Washington, DC
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1565845781
• ISBN 13: 9781565845787
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 222