FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Like a classic bard from ancient days, Deirdre McCloskey sings the triumph of capitalist virtue in two senses: the qualities of personal behavior that allow capitalism to succeed, and the human achievement that capitalist economies have historically made possible. Readers will agree with these central premises or not, but no one can fail to be impressed, indeed astonished, at the depth of learning and the breadth of erudition on display in this incredibly rich account.”
BENJAMIN M. FRIEDMAN

 

“There are few scholars who understand the complex and subtle interconnections of economics with philosophy and history as well as Deirdre N. McCloskey. The Bourgeois Virtues forces readers to rethink issues long tucked away as settled.”
ROBERT W. FOGEL,
WINNER OF THE 1993 NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS

The Bourgeois Virtues

Ethics for an Age of Commerce

Deirdre McCloskey

Deirdre McCloskey is known everywhere, not just for her work, but for her life: in addition to being a world renowned economist and historian, she is a transsexual whose sex change was chronicled in the 1999 bestselling memoir Crossing. In this book—her first major work since that memoir—McCloskey ransacks over 400 years of European history—ideas, manners, business practices, religion, philosophy, and political events—in a magisterial work that might otherwise be called In Defense of Capitalism.

The Bourgeois Virtues argues that capitalism is good for us, that markets improve ethics, that free enterprise makes us better people, and that bourgeois virtues isn't an oxymoron along the lines of military intelligence or Microsoft Works. Countering centuries of pat assumptions and unexamined thinking here, McCloskey takes dead aim at critics who have argued for nearly a millennium and a half that capitalism is responsible for everything from financial and moral poverty to world wars and spiritual desuetude.

High Noon, Kant, Bill Murray, the modern novel, van Gogh—and of course, economics—all come into play in a book that can only be described as a monumental project and a life's work. The Bourgeois Virtues is nothing less than a dazzling reinterpretation of Western intellectual history—and a surprising page turner.

Deirdre McCloskey is distinguished professor of economics, history, English, and communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the author of numerous books, including Crossing: A Memoir, The Secret Sins of Economics, and If You're So Smart: The Narrative of Economic Expertise.

 

Deirdre McCloskey is available for interviews. For more information please contact Mark Heineke
at (773) 702-3714
mah@press.uchicago.edu

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MORE PRAISE FOR THE BOURGEOIS VIRTUES

 

“The Bourgeois Virtues is like no other book on this topic. Exhilarating and provocative, surprising, at times maddening, but always insightful, it powerfully argues against a narrow conception of economic rationality based on prudence alone.”
MARTHA NUSSBAUM

 

“This stunningly fresh apologia for capitalism reworks Thomas Aquinas's integration of the Christian and pagan virtues for us. Its aggressive yet chatty style is so direct and liberating that the reader cannot get off easily, but is compelled to listen. She is waging war against the academic orthodoxy in which we live and move and have our being that virtue and capitalism are antithetical. It is well worth reading just to see if she can turn your head. ”
ELLEN CHARRY

 

“You wonder how economics could be thought of as a 'dismal science' when you read Deirdre McCloskey. In Bourgeois Virtues, she turns her humane and encyclopedic wisdom to a brilliant defense of a much maligned, misunderstood homo economicus. Even when you disagree with its ideas, you leave this book reluctantly—glad to have been so enlightened and entertained.”
MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI

 

“Rather than following a wide swath of the twentieth-century intelligentsia in scorning the so-called bourgeois virtues of prudence, decency, hard work, fairness, and ingenuity, McCloskey lifts up these virtues and commends them for, on the whole, helping to create societies and persons that are more decent than they would otherwise be. McCloskey is a graceful writer and holds the reader's interest throughout.”
JEAN BETHKE ELSHTAIN