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Deirdre Nansen McCloskey | Bourgeois Dignity and Liberty, July 2009 version
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL | Forthcoming, University of Chicago Press, autumn 2010

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Deirdre Nansen McCloskey
[forthcoming, University of Chicago Press autumn 2010]
University of Illinois at Chicago
deirdre2@uic.edu
deirdremccloskey.org
Table of Contents
  1. Front matter and Acknowledgments
  2. “The Tide of Innovation, 1700-Present” (abstract)
    1. The Industrial Revolution was a Great Tide
    2. The Tide Came from a New Dignity and a New Liberty for the Ordinary Bourgeoisie and Its Innovations
  3. “The Anti-Materialist Project of ‘The Bourgeois Era’” (abstract)
    1. Many Other Plausible Theories Don’t Work Very Well
    2. The Correct Story Praises “Capitalism”
  4. “Growth, Quality, Happiness, and the Poor” (abstract)
    1. Modern Growth was a Factor of at Least Sixteen
    2. Increasing Scope, Not Pot-of-Pleasure “Happiness,” is What Mattered
    3. And the Poor Won
  5. “Britain, China, and the Irrelevance of Stage Theories” (abstract)
    1. Britain Led
    2. But Britain’s, and Europe’s, Lead was an Episode
    3. And Followers Could Leap Over Stages
  6. “Saving, Investment, Greed, and Original Accumulation Do Not Explain Growth” (abstract)
    1. It Didn’t Happen Because of Thrift
    2. Nor Because of a Rise of Greed or of a Protestant Ethic
    3. Nor Because of Original Accumulation
  7. “Domestic Reshufflings, Such as Transport and Coal, Do Not Explain the Modern World” (abstract)
    1. Transport or Other Domestic Reshufflings Didn’t Cause It
    2. Nor Geography, nor Natural Resources
    3. Not Even Coal
  8. “Foreign Trade Was Not an Engine of Growth” (abstract)
    1. Foreign Trade was Not the Cause, Though World Prices were a Context
    2. And the Logic of Trade-as-an-Engine is Dubious
    3. And Even the Dynamic Effects of Trade were Small
  9. “Slavery and Imperialism Did Not Enrich Europe” (abstract)
    1. The Effects on Europe of the Slave Trade and British Imperialism were Smaller Still
    2. And Other Imperialisms, External or Internal, Were Equally Profitless
  10. “Commerce in Braudel and the Marxists” (abstract)
    1. It was Not the Sheer Quickening of Commerce
  11. “The Inheritance of Gregory Clark” (abstract)
    1. Eugenic Materialism Doesn’t Work
    2. Neo-Darwinism Doesn’t Compute
    3. And Inheritance Fades
  12. “The Institution of Douglass North” (abstract)
    1. Institutions Cannot be Viewed Merely as Incentive-Providing Constraints
    2. Nor Did The Glorious Revolution Initiate Private Property
    3. And So the Chronology of Property and Incentives Has Been Mismeasured
    4. And Anyway the Entire Absence of Property is not Relevant to the Place or Period
  13. “Science, Bourgeois Dignity, and the Industrial Revolution” (abstract)
    1. The Cause was Not Science
    2. But Bourgeois Dignity and Liberty Entwined with the Enlightenment
  14. “Creative Language, Creative Destruction, Creative Politics” (abstract)
    1. It was Not Allocation, but Language
    2. Dignity and Liberty for Ordinary People, in Short, were the Greatest Externalities
    3. They Warrant Not Political or Environmental Pessimism, but an Amiable Optimism
  15. Works Cited
  16. Appendix
    1. “The Argument of Bourgeois Dignity and Liberty: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World”
    2. “A List of ‘Not Causes’”

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6 responses to “Bourgeois Dignity and Liberty: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World”

  1. McCloskey tar sin utgångspunkt i världens extraordinära ekonomiska tillväxt och brytning med Malthus lag under de senaste århundraden. Den disponibla inkomsten låg på 3 dollar per person och dag under i stort sett hela mänsklighetens historia, då alla produktivitetsökningar åts upp av befolkningsökningen. Men så hände något runt år 1800 och i dag är genomsnittsinkomsten i världen 30 dollar per dag (i Norge 137), en ökning med en faktor om 10 – detta trots en gigantisk befolkningsökning under samma period. 5,5 av världens 6,5 miljarder människor lever i rika länder eller i länder som är på väg att bli rika. Förvisso finns det fortfarande en ”Bottom Billion” med Paul Colliers ord, men man behöver inte vara kurzweiliansk i sina förutsägelser för att förutspå att så inte kommer att vara fallet om så lite som 50 år.

    McCloskey tror att det är den så kallade ”bourgeoisiens” (ett medvetet provokativt valt ord) värderingar och attityder, som i störst utsträckning förklarar denna välståndsökning utan motstycke i historien. Denna volym, som är del två av sex i hennes Magnum Opus The Bourgeois Era, är tänkt att vederlägga i stort sett alla andra presumtiva förklaringar bakom världens ekonomiska tillväxt (sparsamhet, protestantismen och handel, för att nämna några).

    Det uttalade syftet med de sex banden är att skriva ett försvarstal för den genom tiderna så bespottade bourgeoisien, dess värderingar och ”värdighet”. Den första delen, The Bourgeois Virtues gavs ut 2007 och hamnade på femte plats på Atlas Foundations lista över de tio mest betydelsefulla frihetsböckerna under det gångna decenniet. McCloskey deltog även i Mont Pelerin Societys konferens föregående sommar i Stockholm som arrangerades av Ratio. Där presenterade hon de första tre kapitlen i den nya boken.

    Written by Bourgeoisiens värderingar « Niklas Elert on January 11th, 2010.

  2. Dear Mr. Elert:

    I got the “extraordinära ekonomiska,” which served my vanity. But can you tell me the gist of what you wrote in English?

    Sincerely,

    Deirdre

    Written by Deirdre McCloskey on January 13th, 2010.

  3. Dear Deirdre,

    As a Dane I can understand what Elert is writing. He is relating the subject [of The Bourgeois Virtues] and mentioning your visit to the Mont Pelerin society and other accolades. “Extraordinara ekonomiska” refers to the economic development since 1800.

    Regards,
    Kim

    Written by Kim Hvid Johnsen on January 14th, 2010.

  4. Dear Deirdre,
    “extraordinära ekonomiska” could have referred to your skills as well. :) What appeared as a comment on this site was actually a post on my blog linking here, whereas your comment appeared on my blog as well (very odd indeed).

    I posted a translation of the post in the comment field at my blogg prior to realizing this, you’ll find it here: http://niklaselert.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/bourgeoisiens-varderingar/#comments

    Regards
    Niklas

    Written by Niklas Elert on January 14th, 2010.

  5. Prudentia editors are at fault here. In response to a pingback of Mr. Elert’s post that arrived at deirdremccloskey.org, they meant to refer to Mr. Elert’s mention of the Bourgeois Era volumes in a new post but instead copied it as a comment. Prudentia apologizes to all for the confusion.

    Written by Journal staff on January 15th, 2010.

  6. Basta Niklas,

    Thanks for the translation and your praise. I dearly would like to reach my cousins in sweet Scandinavia! Regards, Deirdre

    Written by Deirdre McCloskey on January 15th, 2010.

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