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Economics for the Impatient Review by Tina Rice
C.A. TurnerClearwater Publishing Company, Inc
PO Box 778
303-465-2741
http://www.clearwaterpublishing.com
"Entertaining books on dull subjects. One of the best known unknown micropublishers in the United States." Now I don't normally start my reviews with a quote by the publisher, but this quote got my attention. Economics is not an exciting subject for most people. In fact, most people I asked thought economics was the most boring class they took in high school and college. I jumped at the chance to review the book Economics for the Impatient. I have two high school students, and we need the economics for credit this school year. I was expecting boring, dull, and dry writing that I was going to have to spoon feed my daughters. Well, that was not the case, but more on that later.
Economics for the Impatient is a concise text on the history and concepts of economics. Author C.A. Turner is a technical writer with a master's degree in creative writing from Bennington College in Vermont. The creative writing background shows through in the humorous and easy-to-read writing style that is not normally associated with economics. Occasionally a bit of sarcasm comes through as well, but it is not overly invasive.
Economics for the Impatient is not a high school textbook on economics. It is a 176-page book about economics. It is well suited for most homeschoolers looking to get a feel for what economics is all about. I learned more about the field of economics in the first 56 pages than I learned in my high school or college economics classes. I especially liked Ms. Turner's background information of the movers and shakers in the early field of formal economics. For anyone who labored though anything written by former Federal Reserve System Chairman Alan Greenspan, Economics for the Impatient managed to make such topics as capitalists and anti-capitalists, the free market, starting a business, the history of money, and fiscal policy pretty painless.
So, does a high school student just read the book and get a high school economics credit? I wouldn't recommend this method. A typical high school credit consists of 120 hours of class work plus homework. Reading all 176 pages of Economics for the Impatient should take most students about 12-15 hours. Use this book as a springboard into a study of economics. Require some research and written work, and then you can confidently award a high school economics credit.
