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Joan Baez Made Me Study Econ
Reason Contributing Editor Deirdre McCloskey steals the spotlight in an interesting NY Times story about using novels and literature to teach economics:
Professor McCloskey � who says, I got into economics because of `Grapes of Wrath' and Joan Baez" � prefers serious literature to the narrative textbooks. "I assign Dickens's `Hard Times,' which is awful as economics but creates interesting discussions," she said.
While I read and enjoyed one of the books mentioned in the piece--Russell Robert's The Choice--I'm not sure there's a drearier genre than (explicitly) didactic fiction.
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