Deirdre N. McCloskey: Home Page

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey

Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication
University of Illinois at Chicago

Professor of Economic History, Gothenburg University, Sweden

McCloskey is an economist and economic historian who around 1980 got interested in the rhetoric of persuasion in her field, and then wider literary matters, such as literary and social theory. Her main project for the next few years will be writing a six-volume tome on "The Bourgeois Era." Volume 1 was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2006, and widely and on the whole favorably reviewed, we at Prudentia were gratified to see. The next volume, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World will be ... more »

Sometime she will do a book called Economie, making a case for an economic criticism, as a form of literary criticism. A recent technical contribution to economics and statistics is a book with Stephen Ziliak, The Cult of Statistical ... more »

The oddest personal fact about Deirdre is that she was until 1995 "Donald." She has written on the matter, especially the account of her transition, 1994-98, Crossing: A Memoir, a NY Times Notable Book. But that's merely the oddest ... more »

A quote displayed at the Matisse exhibit (Art Institute of Chicago, March-June 2010): When you have achieved what you want in a certain area, when you have exploited the possibilities that lie in one direction, you must, when the time comes, change course, search for something new.

Henri Matisse, June 1919, interview with Ragnar Hoppe.

RFM (Radio Free Market) features Deirdre as a special guest for its program "Isn't Capitalism Basically Corrupt?"

Hosted by Michael McKay with economist Art Carden, Professor of Economics at Rhodes College, as a commentator.
Broadcast date: 21 January 2012.

New videos from McCloskey's recent lectures in Munich:

The stunning quality of the Munich videos translates to an unusually long download time. Their content is, as always, well worth the wait.

The Buzz on the
Bourgeois Era

For our Italian readers, an editorial based on McCloskey's Bourgeois Dignity:
"Come dare dignità al nostro futuro" di Barbara Spinelli, La Repubblico, 11 gennaio 2012.
Rave review of Bourgeois Dignity by Don Boudreaux The Independent Review, Winter 2013.
One of the many rewards of reading Bourgeois Dignity is to receive from a worldclass historian as penetrating and eloquent a tour of commercial and industrial history as can possibly be fitted into a single volume.
Good Commercial Faith and the City Bourgeois Virtues and commercial law. By Mark Roark, 13 December 2011.
Whether we segregate capitalists from capitalist poets, we nonetheless come to the same conclusion as Emerson and McCloskey — that commerce creates the potential for humans to be good.
Review of Bourgeois Dignity. By Henry Clark of Clemson University in EJPE, autumn 2011.
It is as necessary for people to read this magnificent book as it is difficult to define the "people" who ought to read it.
Bourgeois Dignity is awarded "Best Foreign Book" in the UAE.
Article written by Imran Mojib for The Gulf Today, November 17, 2011.
Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World is now available in paperback. See details at University of Chicago Press.
Interview from the archives: "She sings the praises of the free market," Nov. 16, 2009. Eva Lundgren, GU Journalen, University of Gothenburg.
Donald Boudreaux
Donald Boudreaux in The Freeman 61 (7), September 2011: "Talk About a Revolution."

McCloskey [in Bourgeois Dignity] reviews with awesome thoroughness all the major (and many not-so-major) explanations for the Industrial Revolution. She finds them all wanting.
Peter Boettke on Bourgeois Dignity: A Behavioral Approach to the Political and Economic Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 22 July 2011.
A Liberal and Rhetorical Reply (to a special issue on Bourgeois Dignity in the Journal of Socio-Economics), DNM, July, 2011.

Christian Libertarianism (or, outside the USA, Christian "Liberalism")

An exchange with The Clinic, a satirical journal in Chile (cf. Britain's Private Eye).
Deirdre N. McCloskey, November 21, 2011

For our Spanish readers, notices on Deirdre's recent visit to Chile

McCloskey y las predicciones en economía, Centro de Estudios Públicos, Loreto Cox, 6 November 2011.
Deirdre McCloskey, profesora de Economía e Historia de la Universidad de Illinois, Monitoreo Permanente, 6 November 2011.

McCloskey in the Wall Street Journal

"The New Theories of Moral Sentiments"

The economic historian who is bringing love, faith, courage and virtue back into her discipline.

By DALIBOR ROHAC, 27 January 2012

Notes and a photo from The Legatum Institute's hosting of Deirdre, 13 January 2012

Reading lists available for
Spring 2012 courses

For all course materials and information, refer to deirdremcclosky.com/courses.

Prof. McCloskey to be awarded doctor honoris causa at three academic institutions in 2012.

[See also Prudentia's archives]

Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Copenhagen Business School
Southern Illinois University

News reporter captures Deirdre's lecture in Germany

(click image to enlarge)

"Dissing the Golden Goose in the City of London"

D.N. McCloskey, November 2011

Sneering at the bourgeoisie and admiring the aristocracy in Shakespearean England yielded trivial growth. Maoism and Great Leaps Forward, or Gandhi combined with LSE socialism, yielded the same. When in the eighteenth century the British became a polite and commercial people, the modern world began.

CBC Radio One's "Ideas" (Toronto) hosts a one-hour interview with Deirdre.

PODCAST of the interview, October 20, 2011.

Richard Handler

A write-up by the interviewer, Richard Handler: "Why bourgeois values matter: A defence of capitalism by economic historian Deirdre McCloskey," CBC News, 18 October 2011.

Pictures from a Press Conference

"Rueda de prensa de Deirdre Mccloskey y Ronald W. Jones" »

"Riflessioni su economia e materie umanistiche" (Reflections on economics and the humanities)

Noise from Amerika, 11 October 2011.
For our Italian readers, Andrea Moro writes about a vigorous discussion between Deirdre and Aldo Rustichini in Salamanca.

"Lectio Magistralis, Salamanca"

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