On Facebook, my friend Daniel Bastiat has started a new 7-day challenge: Pick between 2 to 5 books that you would assign for any course of your choosing (each day) and name the course. You can use the same book on multiple days if it pertains to the topic.
I was going to tag folks the way Daniel tagged me… but too many of the folks I was going to tag are preparing for the beginning of the new semester.
So, without tagging, I will create my own Course titles and provide the texts for the course.
Day #1 Course: The Socialist Calculation Debate
(For graduate-level students)
The only “textbook” for the course is the magisterial multi-volume series edited by Peter J. Boettke: Socialism and the Market: The Socialist Calculation Debate Revisited:
Volume 1: The Natural Economy (selections by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Bukharin, Neurath, and others)
Volume 2: Collectivist Economic Planning (Hayek’s edited work)
Volume 3: Economic Planning in Soviet Russia (Brutzkus)
Volume 4: Marginalist Economics and the Socialist Economy (selections by Taylor, Knight, Dobb, Lerner, Durbin, Lange, and others)
Volume 5: Socialist Calculation and the Market Economy (selections by Hayek, Robbins, Mises, Bergson, Roberts, Vaughn, and others)
Volume 6: Rivalry and Central Planning (by Don Lavoie)
Volume 7: The Political Economy of Soviet Socialism (by Peter J. Boettke)
Volume 8: Mechanism Design Theory and the Allocation of Resources (selections by Lange, Lavoie, Stiglitz, and others)
Volume 9: The Current Status of the Debate (selections by Prychitko, Shapiro, Arnold, Schweickart, Cottrell & Cockshott, Horwitz, Caldwell, and others)
Postscript (31 August 2020): I added this comment on one of the Facebook threads pertaining to the course and text selections, given some of the criticisms of my choices along the way. Since it’s a general statement, I include my comment here for the sake of readers looking at the entire seven-day course challenge:
“I would truly like to include 10 or 20 books in each course, but with this 2-5 book maximum, I’m going with texts that I think are either foundational to the course, or I’m cheating, by including compilations that cover more ground than the outlines of the challenge. I know that I’m leaving out so much, with regrets. After all, my bibliography for Total Freedom alone runs nearly 50 pages. But the lack of inclusion of any important work is not a sign of negative judgment and the inclusion of a work is not a sign of positive endorsement. My selections are just being guided by works I think essential to the topic of the course… and I’ve slapped my head several times along the way and said: “You shoulda, coulda, woulda included X!” Perhaps when this is little challenge is over, I’ll return to it—when my deadlines and circumstances allow for it—with all new course topics and all-new selections. Until then, I’m prepared to be scolded! 🙂 ”
