I am a fan of J. R. Kearl’s Econ 110 class. Let me just get that out there. I loved the class, and I loved his lectures. He teaches his students with great precision, and helps them learn to think like an economist.
That said, his book, Economics and Public Policy, is horrendous. I did not know that when I took the class, because 110 is an intro to economics, and I had never read another econ textbook. All I knew was that the book was hard to read, hard to do homework from (tearing a neat page out of a book that has pseudo perforation: nightmare), and SUPREMELY hard to connect to his lectures.
I recently obtained a copy of Greg Mankiw’s introductory course textbook, Principles of Economics, and all I can say is that I am amazed at the difference. This is a book that goes to great lengths to ensure your understanding. It moves at a quick pace, teaches all the principles and more that Kearl’s book does (and more), and leaves you more time to think about what you’ve read instead of questioning and rereading. I love economics, but I love it even more when learning about it in this way.
My sincere thanks to Dr. Mankiw for such a great learning resource. I have always had a rough relationships with textbooks because of how difficult most of them are to apply, but this one is amazing.
