©Deirdre Nansen McCloskey | COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
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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 » |
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The Irish freethinker John Toland (Seán Ó Tuathaláin, 1670-1722) wrote an auto-epitaph just before he died poor in London: "He was an assertor of liberty, a lover of all sorts of learning . . . but no man's follower or dependent. Nor could frowns or fortune bend him to decline from the ways he had chosen."
"Bourgeois Virtues?"
Deirdre McCloskey.
Forthcoming in Schweizer Monat, June 2012.
Also forthcoming in German.
"The seven [virtues] are 'primary' in the same sense that red, blue, and yellow are 'primary' colors. You can get from red and blue to purple, but not from purple and green to red or blue or yellow. You can get from justice and courage to the virtue of honesty, or from hope and courage to the virtue of optimism, but not the other way."
For our Spanish readers, "Lo que se esconde tras la D."
Maria Blanco, CienciaHUMANA, 21 abril 2012
Detrás de la letra D había un economista, Donald McCloskey (1942- ). Se trataba de un economista bastante conocido y brillante. Doctorado por Harvard, había trabajado en el área de historia económica, en concreto la referida a la Gran Bretaña de los siglos XVIII y XIX. Pero Donald se hizo muy famoso por su estudio de la retórica de la ciencia y en particular de la ciencia económica. Cuestionó el cómo hacemos las cosas los teóricos de la economía y señalaba a la retórica como uno de los puntos negros de nuestra ciencia.
"Entrepreneurs serve the public better than politicians"
Art Carden, Washington Examiner, 21 April 2012
A little story that illustrates some of Prudentia's principles."If economists are so smart, why ain't they rich?"
Copenhagen Business School, 18 April 2012
Prof. McCloskey received another honorary doctorate this April. From the Copenhagen Business School press:"Throughout her career, Professor Deirdre N. McCloskey has asked 'the American question' in connection with her research ... 'If economists are so smart, why ain't they rich?' Although she never gives a simple answer. She is a prime example of how you advantageously combine different skills to understand and act in a modern world."
VIDEO: Lecture and panel discussion on economics, history and political economy
George Mason University, 28 March 2012. Panel discussion begins 1:24.
Deirdre, Peter Boettke, and Daniel Klein field audience questions following Klein's lecture, "Knowledge and Coordination: A Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Book Discussion""What do we talk about when we talk about economics?"
With host, Jack Russell Weinstein, Why Radio, 11 March, Prairie Public Network.
Publicity poster »
"Former "Chicago Boy" Deirdre McCloskey, Transgender Economist Extraordinaire"
Emmanuel Garessus for Le Tempes, 11 February 2012
"Deirdre McCloskey, an acclaimed professor and former University of Chicago protégé of Milton Friedman, stunned the academic world with a sex change in 1995. But that's just one interesting part of a woman now focused on a more 'human' approach to economics."
" Weber, Marx and Samuelson Were Wrong -- Ideas Matter in Economic History"
Video of Deirdre's lecture at Michigan State, 26 January 2012
For our German readers, "Unser Wohlstand grenzt an ein Wunder"
Steffen Hentrich for the Liberale Institut, 24 January 2012.
Two articles on McCloskey for our Spanish readers
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"Humanomics: A Kirznerian Economic History of the Modern World," Econsalut, 2 February 2012.
"Pro Mercado," by Luis Rubio in Salvemos Las Lomas, 21 January 2012.
The Buzz on the
Bourgeois Era
- "The Bourgeois Virtues by Deirdre McCloskey"
Interesting write-up by the anonymous blogger of Big Sky Ideas, 20 February 2012.
McCloskey "has written a bracingly well-informed and original book. She argues that capitalism, far from being immoral as much of the left think, or amoral as many libertarians believe, is in fact fully compatible with human and ethical flourishing. And its record on actually encouraging flourishing is much better than the alternatives."
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.
Human Capital and the Onset of Economic Growth
Deirdre McCloskey, March 2012
Deirdre commented on March 26, 2012 on the NEP-HIS blog by Manuel Bautista on Jan Luiten van Zanden's views about how we got here. Since Jan Luiten, an old friend of Deirdre's, thinks that Human Capital Did It, and such a thought is quite common among economic historians and economists (who unhappily persist in reducing the greatest secular surprise in history to routine investment), Deirdre thought it worthwhile to comment
"Deirdre McCloskey at the Korbel Speaker Series"
PODCAST, May 2012, Denver.
The lecture was "part of the ongoing Korbel Speakers Series, 'The Specter of Ignorance.' As part of this series, [McCloskey] focuses on what we come to know, how we know it and how it impacts our behavior in the world around us."
"The Bankruptcy of Statistical Significance"
VIDEO lecture, 24 April 2012.
"McCloskey to win 4 honorary degrees"
Kevin Schultz, UIC Department of History, 19 April 2012.
"Congratulations to Professor Deirdre McCloskey, who is set to receive four honorary degrees from prestigious institutions around the world." Read more...
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Doctor Honoris Causa in the History of Capitalism, Copenhagen Business School, April 19, 2012
Honorary Doctorate, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Guatemala, May 5, 2012
Honorary Degree of Humane Letters, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, May 12, 2012
Honorary Doctorate, Jönköping University, Sweden, September 28, 2012
"Deirdre McCloskey [not] on David Graeber's 'Debt'"
Adam Ozimek, Modeled Behavior, 16 April 2012.
"I'm sorry to do this to you, but I don't really have Deirdre McCloskey reviewing David Graeber's 'Debt: The First 5,000 Years.' But did you feel how bad you wanted to read that when you saw that headline? Surely, one of our readers has the power to make this review happen."
From Switzerland, "Ich mag das Wort 'Kapitalismus' nicht"
Verena Parzer Epp, Avenir Suisse: Think tank for economic and social issues, 3 April 2012.
"Deirdre McCloskey über wissenschaftliche Methodik, die Grundlagen des Wachstums und christlichen Libertarismus"
"This is the wonder-working power of economic freedom and dignity"
By James Pethokoukis, The Enterprise Blog, 7 March 2012.
Pethokoukis's preface to a quote from Deirdre McCloskey's Bourgeois Dignity: "what people hear and believe matters. Really matters."
"A review of Stephen T. Ziliak and Deirdre N. McCloskey, The Cult of Statistical Significance. How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives"
By Tamás Dusek, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, II:2, 121-124 (2009).
"The book ... gives an excellent overview of the methodological, historical, institutional and personal-psychological aspects of the misuse of statistical significance test in various branches of science and offers a solution for the untenable situation."
See also Prudentia's archives on Statistical Significance.
"Everything you need to know about the power of economic freedom in 3 charts"
By James Pethokoukis, The American, 18 February 2012
The West's "embrace of economic freedom and creative destruction, both legally and culturally — what economist Deirdre McCloskey calls the idea of bourgeois dignity and liberty — led to a rise in real income per head in 2010 prices from about $2-3 a day in 1800 worldwide to over $100 today."
"How Britain's cultural revolution transformed the world"
Seán Keyes
Seán Keyes for Money Week, 17 February 2012
"McCloskey is trying to move the economic conversation towards, well, human conversation. She argues that words and values are badly under appreciated by economic historians. Culture and attitudes are a powerful force, she says, and they shape how individuals choose to live their lives."
"Serfs Up... . . . Why the middle class matters"
Upwardly mobile? Class differences were
obvious in Zola's Paris. Photo: Hulton
Dan O'Brien for the Irish Times, 4 February 2012
No one in recent times has offered a more multilayered and erudite depiction of the role of the middle classes in driving progress than the economic historian Deirdre McCloskey.
"The New Theories of Moral Sentiments"
Dalibor Rohac for the Wall Street Journal, 27 January 2012
[A profile on] "the economic historian who is bringing love, faith, courage and virtue back into her discipline."
Looking for a specific McCloskey article? See something amiss? E-mail Prudentia's editor.
Deirdre N. McCloskey is Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago;
and Professor of Economic History, Gothenburg University, Sweden
Prudentia
Susan B. MacDonald, Editor
www.deirdremccloskey.org - website designed & built by susan b. macdonald - print date: Thursday, 17 May 2012 - statcounter