I have been teaching the History of Economic Thought course at Bucknell for 
about 9 years now, and one of the things I use is a collection of readings 
that was initially assembled by Bill Cooper, who taught the course until he 
retired.  I had used the McGraw Hill Masterworks series, but when it was 
discontinued, I ask and receive permissions from all of the publishers who 
have some sort of control over the readings I now use.  This allows me to 
make a limited number of copies for classroom use.    Needless to say this 
is a real pain and very time consuming, particularly since publishers 
disappear--but their rights to their publications don't.  While a lot of 
the material is in the public domain, some publishers have rights to the 
actual format--so if you retype the work it's ok, if you xerox it, it is 
not.  (Our bookstore charge for doing this is quite high and when I do it, 
the cost is around $25 per student.) 
 
Every now and then I hand the list of the readings that are included to one 
of the publishers reps. that drops by my office--and usually I never hear 
from them again--not even a "well, no thank you." 
 
Perhaps those on this network who are interested might generate a list of 
readings that ought to be included in a reader for a History of Economic 
Thought course, and approach publishers as a group or a net or a virtual 
community. 
 
Jean 
 
_________________________________________________________________ 
Jean Shackelford                        Department of Economics 
[log in to unmask]               Bucknell University 
717-524-3441  (O)                      Lewisburg, PA  17837 
717-524-3760 (FAX)