The authors suggest that the text be used alongside a basic macroeconomics textbook or as a main text in itself.
It is an excellent introduction to what is recognised as a controversial area of economics. The analogy of climbing a mountain and not being able to see the landscape is a very pertinent one.
There may be disagreements about the content of this book. Indeed it is easy to adopt a position about exclusions but this is a side issue. The format of an historical perspective in the development of ideas coupled with a consideration of the major positions within the debate works well.
It is clear from reading the text that the authors are very familiar with the subject matter and that each has contributed to the individual chapters on the specialist areas in a way which carries along the general reader.
Two particular things stand out for me in this text. The first is the section within the first chapter devoted to methodological issues and the associated section on rhetoric in economics. This is a key to a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the debate and the competing schools of thought involved.
The other standout aspect of this book is the interviews with various protaganists of the differing schools. Some pretty big names here including that of Nobel Prize Winner, James Tobin who only died last week. And what interviews. Not for these authors the standard sort of awe-struck beholden interviews but foccussed on the central points of the debate, exploratory questions which give real insight into the people and the issues involved. An excellent approach and one which has proved to be very successfully applied.
The final chapter, Conclusions and Reflections provides an outstanding summation and is followed by a comprehensive bibliography.
This book manages to convey in written form the full extent and depth of the macroeconomic debate such that it is intelligible to the educated reader without resorting to more mathematics than are absolutely needed and for that the authors are to be applauded.
In summing up this is a very valuable text which will be an asset to every macroeconomics course reading list.
The challenge of explaining the major schools of thought, and explaining their strengths and weaknesses is a major one. The authors also go over some non-orthodox schools such as Post Keynesian and Austrian. However, some of the diagrams are poorly explained and the writing is a bit incomprehensible in a few chapters. Also, the book does not go over growth theory, which is probably a major part of any graduate macro class. On the whole though, it is one of the best macro books available.