A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 53 “It Was Not a Deep Cultural Change” Dr. McCloskey continues to examine the power of rhetoric, what we may now call the narrative, on society and the economy. Why did the Great Enrichment take root around 1700 in England? Capitalism and the Hockey Stick…
Tag: Economic History
Bourgeois Equality
It Was a Rapid Revision of Rhetoric
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 52 “And Its Rhetoric Can Change Quickly” As Dr. McCloskey continues on in Part VIII with the argument that the belief in certain ideas created the modern world of wealth, she is now focusing on how quickly ideas can change. Why did the Great…
Bourgeois Equality
Sweet Talk at Work Matters More than You Think
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 51 “Sweet Talk Rules the Economy” No, this is not about inappropriate talk. Dr. McCloskey has been arguing all along in her book that the rise of ideas, rhetoric and language that respect the dignity of the bourgeois merchant was key to the Great…
Bourgeois Equality
The Danger of the Same as It Ever Was
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 50 “On the Whole, However, the Bourgeoisies and their Bettering Projects Have Been Precarious” Dr. McCloskey is wrapping up part VII (!) of her book (still 3 more parts to go) in which she has been making the point that the Great Enrichment that…
Bourgeois Equality
Ideas Transformed Sociology not Biology
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 49 “And then Turned” Dr. McCloskey revisits her main thesis: the role of ideas as the source of the Great Enrichment taking off in England in the nineteenth century. She says it cannot be due to economic, political, or legal changes because any changes…
Bourgeois Equality
And the New Bourgeois Respect Created Vested Interests Supportive of the Great Enrichment
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 48 “And Betterment, Though Long Disdained, Developed Its Own Vested Interests” Change is hard to do in a system in part because it hurts one or more groups who are part of the existing status quo. So how can something as big as a…
Bourgeois Equality
Yet the Roots of Bourgeois Respect were Christian
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 47 “Yet Some Christians Anticipated a Respected Bourgeoisie” Dr. McCloskey notes that in the later medieval era you can already see Christianity making room for trading and profits that will allow successful merchants to still be devout Christians. She notes Thomas Aquinas promoting such thinking in…
Bourgeois Equality
We Need to Bring Back Virtue Not Give Up on Economics
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 67 “A Change in Rhetoric Made Modernity, and Can Spread It” This is an historic blog — 67 chapters over nearly 18 months, and now we are at the final chapter of Dr. McCloskey’s Bourgeois Equality! I was drawn to do a chapter by chapter review of…
Bourgeois Equality
Our Language Shows Historic, and Current, Disdain for the Bourgeois
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 46 “The Hostility was Ancient” Dr. McCloskey continues her exploration of the negative attitude that has existed over time towards trading and profits started last chapter. Trading and profit making and entrepreneurship and betterment have been more or less despised by the aristocracy in pastoral…
Bourgeois Equality
Attitudes towards Bourgeois Betterment Historically Hostile
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 45 “Talk had been Hostile to Betterment” Dr. McCloskey opens this chapter with a story of a Mayan man from Guatemala, Oscar Chiquito, who had recently graduated from university despite long odds. And the long odds were due largely to his father’s hostility to…