©Deirdre Nansen McCloskey | COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL


deirdremccloskey Deirdre Nansen McCloskey
Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication
University of Illinois at Chicago

Professor of Social Thought
Academia Vitae, Deventer, NL

Professor Extraordinary, Department of Economics, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

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.


Camille Pissarro's "Bourgeois House"

An update on the Bourgeois Era series

  • Bourgeois Dignity, volume 2, is having its final polish before this autumn's debut. Check back often!
  • Deirdre welcomes your comments on the very early draft of volume 3, The Bourgeois Revaluation. Browse the table of contents.
  • As always, information on the well-received first volume, The Bourgeois Virtues, begins here in the books section.

June 2010: "A Dialogue on Market Innovation and Laissez Faire": John Lyne and Deirdre McCloskey.


This week: "(Very Partial) List of Works Cited," in Deirdre McCloskey's early draft of The Bourgeois Revaluation


Deirdre McCloskey is voted one of the "Greatest Economists of the Twentieth Century"
"'Greatest' here means ... who most added to our understanding of economic phenomena."


Some texts are ever-relevant, ever popular. Recent blog excerpts:

From Mark Liberman's "Language Log" (UPenn) April 5, 2010:
For those who are interested in the sociology of economics (about which I obviously know very little), I recommend Deirdre McCloskey's The Secret Sins of Economics. [View original entry.]
And from Liberman's September 16, 2004 archives of the same column:
[T]here are a couple of gems among the first five titles [in Prickly Paradigm's new online resource of pamphelts].I was especially taken with Deirdre McCloskey's The Secret Sins of Economics. It's a great pamphlet, engaging and fun to read and (at least for an outsider) quite convincing. [View original entry.]
About another of McCloskey's "gems," Thomas Mandl writes in his "Constant Education" column (March 30, 2010):
Praise thy Web because She gives us Deirdre McCloskey, who has taken upon herself to teach some basic writing rules to theoretical minds and liberate humanity from illegible words. Her 15 rules of economic writing are a gift that every human being interested in clear prose should read. If you do not want to help yourself by spending 30 minutes on these rules, you can read a one-page summary. If you, however, want to go the whole nine yards you can read Professor McCloskey's book, Economical Writing. [View original entry.]


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