A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 34 “Aristocratic England, For Example, Scorned Measurement” Dr. McCloskey continues exploring the cultural mindset of the Elizabethan era of England in this chapter to demonstrate it did not embrace measurement, which is foundational to the launch of the Great Enrichment in the eighteenth century….
Tag: Economic History
Bourgeois Equality
Elizabethan England Esteemed Elites
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 33 “As Did Elizabethan England Generally” Dr. McCloskey is continuing on with the thesis of last chapter, offering examples of Elizabethan writers other than Shakespeare, who valued hierarchy over the disruptive bourgeois virtues that will allow the trade tested betterment system to take off…
Bourgeois Equality
Hierarchy over Innovation for Shakespeare
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 32 “Bourgeois Shakespeare Disdained Trade and the Bourgeoisie” As Dr. McCloskey has argued in previous chapters, the Great Enrichment that kicks off around 1800 cannot be explained by an improvement in institutions like property rights. In this chapter, she again reminds us of the…
Bourgeois Equality
Why It Had to Be the British Bourgeois
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 31 “And the Change was Specifically British” This chapter wraps up the 4th part of Dr. McCloskey’s book by asserting the favorable attitude shift towards bourgeois dignity was particularly British in flavor. To put this chapter in context, she is working backwards in time…
Bourgeois Equality
A Sociological Shift, Not a Psychological Change
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 29 “The Bourgeoisie Loved Measurement” and Chapter 30 “The Change Was in Social Habits of the Lip, Not in Psychology” We continue Dr. McCloskey’s dive into why the Great Enrichment occurred when it did because the stories we tell ourselves shape the world of…
Bourgeois Equality
When Earning Money Became a Virtue
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 18 “No Woman but a Blockhead Wrote for Anything but Money” In this chapter, Dr. McCloskey is continuing with the idea initiated the last chapter: Jane Austen illustrates the bourgeois ideals in her writing, though she herself was not bourgeois. Austen is gentry, not…
Bourgeois Equality
Are Libertarians Right about Government?
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 16 “Most Governmental Institutions Make Us Poorer” Calling all libertarians! I think this chapter is for you. This chapter wraps up Part 2. Chapters 10 and 11 showed the Left’s explanations for the Great Enrichment were wrong, but Chapter 12 and 13 did the…
Bourgeois Equality
Good Institutions are not Enough — You Still Need Good Ideas
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 14 “Because Ethics Matters, and Changes, More” I’ll be honest. If the first few chapters read like this one, I never would have thought to do this chapter by chapter review! That is not because this chapter is bad, but it did challenge me….
Bourgeois Equality
You Cannot Steal Economic Growth
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 10, “Divergence not Imperialism” Welcome to chapter 10 of McCloskey’s book, Bourgeoise Equality, as we continue the chapter by chapter walk through. Today’s chapter is beginning Part 2 in her book, examining the question, why are the rich countries rich today? McCloskey is going…
Bourgeois Equality
Is What You “Know” About Growth Wrong?
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 9, “The Great International Divergence Can Be Overcome” McCloskey wraps up part 1 with this chapter asking a great question that has surely popped in your head if you’ve been reading these chapter reviews. But what about the poor right now in the rest…