The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy

For an economics professor, this is an excellent choice to use along with a more traditional economics text, such as Schiller or Mankiw. The viewpoint of the authors is left-leaning, which balances out the conservative/mainstream view of most popular economics textbooks. It is a good resource for student papers or presentations, and I have encouraged students to look for both updated data and data that supports a more conservative view. There is a web site that goes along with the book and has suggestions for using it in a class. The only downside of using the Fieldguide is that the numbers go out of date, and I hope a new version is issued in the near future.

Readers seeking an introduction to capitalistic theory and its relationship to the U.S. economy can find better works elsewhere. This book doesn't purport to provide that kind of analysis. But if readers want a book that provides facts on how capitalism effects individuals in the U.S. across a variety of racial, gender and class lines, then it is hard to imagine a better book than this one. The book is an easy read, but it is by no means simplistic. It is easy because capitalism isn't nearly as successful at providing a fair and equitable standard of living as is commonly held. The book proves that point quite well. Readers might be surprised to discover facts in this book about the U.S. economy that they've never read before. It's a real eye-opener.

The Field Guide is a pointed critique of the US economy, and in fact IS well referenced with clear citations for all its statistics (see pages 213-222). Most of the information is culled either from government sources or from the corporations themselves, as printed in publications like Business Week, Fortune, and the New York Times. And when there are comparisons made they're relevant; for example, comparing industrialized nations and developing countries exclusively.What's best about the Field Guide is that it's a clever resource for fighting off all those people who would tell you "I don't believe it." As the title would suggest, The Field Guide provides you with the tools so you too can find and understand economic information yourself. From pages 194-212 you'll find the 'Toolkit', which has neat things like explanations of how to collect your own information and make graphs. Fun stuff.The Field Guide helps fight the obfuscation of corporate shills.

I love this book. It's a terrific, easy-to-read source ofinformation about the US economy, giving careful attention to economic realities for women, people of color, poor people, and everybody else whose individual net worth is under Bill Gates' $90 billion. (It's estimated that the cost of providing education, health care, adequate food and safe water for all the people of the earth is about $40 billion - I read it in the Field Guide!) This book is an outstanding resource on the economics of everything from elections to health to the environment to gender to the global economy, kept reader-friendly by cartoons, swift wit, and a great guide to sources for more information (complete with web addresses!).

Field Guide to the U.S. Economy blends humor with an observation of the U.S. economy, examining complex economic scenarios and putting together the collective work and humor of over forty progressive economists affiliated with the Center for Popular Economics at Amherst University. Light reading, filled with important points, and ideal for the non-specialist general reader.