Deirdre Nansen McCloksey

Postmodern, quantitative, literary, ex-Marxist, economist, historian, Episcopalian, coastie-bred Chicagoan but now Washington woman who was once not.

Excerpts from Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World by Deirdre McCloskey — essays and reflections on capitalism, innovation, rhetoric, and the cultural origins of modern prosperity. This section explores McCloskey’s argument that the Great Enrichment emerged not mainly from material forces, but from a profound change in how societies viewed commerce, entrepreneurship, and the dignity of ordinary people engaged in trade and enterprise.

Excerpts from Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World by Deirdre McCloskey — reflections on innovation, liberalism, equality, and the origins of modern prosperity. This section explores McCloskey’s argument that the “Great Enrichment” was driven above all by ideas: a cultural and rhetorical shift that granted dignity and liberty to ordinary people, unleashing entrepreneurship, creativity, and unprecedented human flourishing.

Excerpts from The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce by Deirdre McCloskey — reflections on capitalism, ethics, liberty, and the moral case for bourgeois society. This section explores McCloskey’s argument that commerce and free markets cultivate virtues such as prudence, justice, courage, faith, hope, and love, reshaping how we think about modern economic life.