Re: [Marxism] classroom exercise

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 28 Mar 2004 12:23:53 -0800 "Craven, Jim" <JCraven@xxxxxxxxx>
writes:
> I ask my students what "Omission is often the greatest lie" means. I
> ask
> them if they are just picking up a book for the first time, written
> by
> an author with whom they are unfamiliar, how do you get a sense of
> that
> the author's ideological biases and rhetorical intentions are.
> Usually I
> get "look at the book jacket", preface, introduction,
> recommendations by
> other authors. Few come up with "looking at the index"--what is in
> it,
> and what is not.
>
> So I give them the following assignment for extra-credit: Find as
> many
> past and present economics texts as possible (libraries, book
> stores,
> rummage sales etc) and fully document, from the indexes of those
> books,
> any references to any of the following concepts (You get one point
> added
> to your-then--final course grade for each documented reference you
> find
> (Text, pages,):
>
> imperialism, colonialism; neo-colonialism; racism; sexism;
> homophobia;
> war; genocide; socialism;communism;Karl Marx; Friedrich Engels; V.I.
> Lenin; fascism; metropolis; periphery; American Indians/Native
> Americans; African-Americans; Latinos; social class; social strata;
> gender inequality; racial inequality; social systems engineering;
> suicide; divorce; teengage pregnancy; abortion; religious
> fundamentalism; economic centralization; falling rate of profit;
> economic surplus; traditional economies; slavery;feudalism;
> eugenics;
> "primitive"communalism; power; mail-order-brides; global AIDS;
> global
> refugees; globalization; low intensity conflict; global sexual
> slavery;
> wealth and income inequality (domestic and global); lobbyists;
> terrorism; national security; social capital;
> Sweezy, Paul; Magdoff, Harry; Robinson, Joan; Amin, Samir;
> contradictions of capitalism;

Concerning Joan Robinson, it might be useful to have
your students look into why she didn't get the Nobel
Prize in economics.  She was widely expected to
get the Prize in 1975.  Indeed, Business Week
published a profile on her, precisely because
they were expecting her to win the Prize, but
the Nobel committee, instead, at the last moment,
awarded it to the Soviet economist, Leonid Kantorovich,
and the American, Tjalling C. Koopmans, for their
work in creating linear programming.

Apparently, Robinson despite her contributions
in such areas as the analysis of imperfect
competition and capital theory (work which
was of at least the same caliber as that
of other economists who did win the Prize)
was denied it because of her outspoken
leftist, even Maoist. politics, and many
say, because she was after all a woman.
No woman has ever won the Prize in
economics.

Jim F.
>

>
> James M. Craven
> Blackfoot Name: Omahkohkiaayo-i'poyi
> Professor/Consultant,Economics;Business Division Chair
> Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd.
> Vancouver, WA. USA 98663
> Tel: (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863
> http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5
> Employer has no association with private/protected opinion
> "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present
> controls the past." (George Orwell)
> "...every anticipation of results which are first to be proved seems
> disturbing to me...(Karl Marx, "Grundrisse")
> FREE LEONARD PELTIER!!
>
>
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