Deirdre N. McCloskey | Author | LibraryThing

Highly interesting, erudite, and feisty economic history that is in effect a critical primer on attempts to explain the great fact of why massive sustained growth in productivity began only around 1800 and in Britain. McCloskey argues that the Industrial Revolution was not caused by any of the usual suspects--good institutions, high wages, the location of coal, trade, science--but by a shift in ideology to one that respected and permitted entrepreneurialism, innovation, and creative show more destruction. The negative criticism is done thoroughly and convincingly here; the positive case is presumably built up more thoroughly in the next volume ("Bourgeois Equality")... show less

This is not a usual economic book, it may be even said that ‘The Bourgeois Virtues’ is not about economics but about moral philosophy as it can explain the tremendous economic growth of Europe in the last 200-300 years, which affected the world more than any other event in history since first people left Africa. Moral philosophy is not my kind of reading, but as I started the second volume of the series, ‘Bourgeois Dignity’, I decided to work it through.
A word about the author. show more Deirdre N. McCloskey, born as Donald McCloskey, had as great change in her views as in her gender: she started as a Marxist, then moved toward Chicago brand of ‘mainstream’ economics and, finally, closer to anarchist-libertarian school of thought. She is a well-known economic historian, her works can be read on her site: http://www.deirdremccloskey.org/
In short, her idea is that bourgeois version of four classic (courage, justice, prudence, temperance) and three Christian virtues (faith, hope, love). She tried to defend these virtues both from the left [after 1848], who say that bourgeois means evil for humanity and the right, who think that prudence alone is enough and those, who are left behind aren’t worth a second thought.
It is quite sad that while she defends the idea that people and not just MaxU-ers made the new better world possible, she doesn’t like to include some behavioral economic studies – libertarians view the idea that the state can improve on individual decisions as a heresy.
Her writing is rich [Deirdre N. McCloskey is Distinguished Professor of English], the list of sources accounts for 32 pages, ranging from Greek philosophers and early church fathers to classic writers (Dickens, Austin), enlightenment and modern philosophers and of course economists.
In order to show both her style and her ideas, I quote at length:
If Smith had been also a modern econometrician he would have put it as follows. Take any sort of willed behavior you wish to understand—brooding on a vote, for example, or birthing children, or buying lunch, or adopting the Bessemer process in the making of steel. Call it B. Brooding, buying, borrowing, birthing, bequeathing, bonding, boasting, blessing, bidding, bartering, bargaining, baptizing, banking, baking.
What the hard men from Machiavelli to Judge Posner are claiming is that you can explain B with Prudence Only, the P variables of price, pleasure, payment, pocketbook, purpose, planning, property, profit, prediction, punishment, prison, purchasing, power, practice, in a word, the Profane.
Smith and Mill and Keynes and Hirschman and quite a few other economists have replied that, no, you have forgotten love and courage, justice and temperance, faith and hope, that is, social Solidarity, the S variable of speech, semiotics, society, sympathy, service, stewardship, sentiment, sharing, soul, salvation, spirit, symbols, stories, shame, in a word, the Sacred. The two-level universe of the axial religions are these, the Profane and the Sacred. The two summarizing commandments, I have noted, refer to the two levels: (1) love God and (2) love your neighbor. As the historian of religion Mircea Eliade put it,“Sacred and profane are two modes of being in the world.”
Economists have specialized in the profane P, anthropologists have specialized in the sacred S. But most behavior, B, is explained by both

This is not an easy read, it urges you to think, to argue, to discuss.

Like chocolate cake, this book is best eaten in pieces. It is more of a treatise on how liberty has made us wealthy since the mid 19th century. And in the past 40 years or so abject poverty has been eliminated in many parts of the globe. McCloskey argues that it is not capital that makes capitalism hum, but rather the freedom to use ideas that better all our lives. Her intellect and wit throughout the book make it a thoroughly enjoyable read. Its 650 pages can be intimidating but she weaves show more art, literature and culture into a wonderful economic history and dismembers the naysayers like Paul Ehrlich with ease. show less

“Being a woman is what you do... not what your wear. Caring, watching, noticing.” So says Deirdre N. McCloskey, quoting lessons learned when she was still Donald. He contrasts “the self-deprecating style women use when charming others of their tribe” with “the boasting of my tribe.” And he realizes, like a New Yorker whose heart is really in the South, that he wants to be someone else.

I was an adult when I became an American. My husband and I forced a whole new world and culture show more on our children. There were times we wondered if family and friends would forgive us. But for Deirdre, the change is even bigger, and forgiveness can be hard to find. Doctors might easily offer a nose-job to woman who wants to change her face, but when a man wants plastic surgery to seem more womanly, the psychiatrists have to be called, and sometimes even lawyers. After expensive legal procedures (oh yes, we had those to become American) and stays in mental wards (we had none of those, but we did have to be physically examined to prove we were healthy), Deirdre finally embarks on a long series of operations. Insurance won’t pay, claiming she’s either ill, but not treatable, or mad and shouldn’t be treated. Complaining that “gender crossing is not a psychosis, and there is no medical evidence that it is...” Deirdre finally concludes “Identity is both made and not made,” while making for herself a very human, very normal new identity.

As an economist, Deirdre is well-established, multiply published, very observant and very learned. One thing I particularly enjoyed about this book was her recognition of differences between male and female points of view of economics in relationships. “People have two ways, exchange and identity. Men can grasp only exchange,” she says, illustrating her point with a lovely scene where a wife recites who gave her each ornament in the collection around her house. To a man they’re just items of property; to a woman they stand in for the friends who gave them.

The biggest surprise for me in this book was the author’s faith. I wasn’t expecting to see a connection drawn between finding gender and finding religion, though “rebirth” certainly makes sense in both realms. Faith does too; when he couldn’t imagine continuing as he was, Donald had the faith (and the money) to embark on his journey to Deirdre. While some readers might find it hard to imagine why, and some people of faith might find it hard to accept, Deirdre’s advice to “try to think of Jesus as a God of love” is wisely given and well-taken.

A fascinating, absorbing memoir, Crossing invites us to examine who we are, and how much we care for our neighbor, in the light of someone who learned who s/he was not.

Disclosure: I was lucky enough to get a free ecopy of this book.