----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Just a bit on textbook publishers. I don't think it is appropriate to blame textbook publishers for perpetuating AS/AD or for perpetuating any model. Publishers don't care all that much about the particular models that go into texts. They care about selling books. So, in my view, they do not perpetuate anything. What they do is provide part of the institutional structure that perpetuates it. With the merging of publishers, much competition of texts occurs within textbook publishers. They want to have 3 or 4 large selling texts, and they put their resources into selling them. The others are generally dropped or published by smaller publishers, and they have generally do not do well. In choosing among texts, and in revising existing texts, they send the manuscript to many reviewers--likely users, not specialists--and those reviewers play a central role in any revision process. What the publishers naturally want is for the reviewers to be excited about what they see. Reviewers have many views and motives, and a textbook author can or cannot follow what they suggest, but if he or she does not follow it, (when there is a clear pattern coming from the reviews, which often there is not), the publisher will see the textbook author as intransigent. Too much intransigence and the publisher will give up on the book. The degree of intransigence a textbook author can have varies with how well- known the author is. Here's the strategic problem presented the textbook author: To make a difference in the presentation, the textbook author has to have the support of the publisher which means that he or she must not be too intransigent, but that means following reviewer's suggestions, rather than sticking rigidly to one own view of how something should be presented. The intro course has become an institution, which means that it is expected that certain things will be covered in it in certain ways. Many profs adopt a book without have reviewed it thoroughly, and if, when they teach it, it differs significantly from their presentation, they are often not happy. Reviewers reflect that standard. Thus, it it only reasonable that the intro books have to be coordinated to a certain degree to the industry standard. This again pushes toward standardized presentations in the main texts, for the same reason that there is a push toward an industry standard in other fields. I have suggested a 15% rule which is the degree to which a major book can differ from the others. Now, a book may change more than that 15%, and if the market moves with him or her, the presentation will change. If however, it does not, that book will falter. Dave Colander ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]