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)