There was a symposium about Islam and Muslims in American textbooks about 10 years ago, which included some general comments about textbook production in the U.S.
Academics do not get credit from their universities for writing textbooks for tenure or promotion, so they are unmotivated to write them.
When they do sign on for involvement, they usually just supply an outline and a reading list for others.
When I asked who actually writes them (no one else thought to) the reply was, "unemployed English majors."
Might one how that in the intervening years, with the endlessly rising demands for tenure including "community service," textbooks might be counted under that heading?
Allen
On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 8:37 PM, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan via INDOLOGY
<indology@list.indology.info> wrote: