Why read The Bourgeois Virtues?

Book cover of The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce

Book description

For a century and a half, the artists and intellectuals of Europe have scorned the bourgeoisie. And for a millennium and a half, the philosophers and theologians of Europe have scorned the marketplace. The bourgeois life, capitalism, Mencken's "booboisie" and David Brooks's "bobos" - all have been, and still are,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Bourgeois Virtues as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Erwin Dekker

Author

Economists are arguing to this day what gave rise to the enormous rise in living standards since the 1750s. Deirdre McCloskey argues in this first book of her Bourgeois trilogy that it resulted from a cultural shift in which bourgeois virtues replaced aristocratic ones. The book opened my eyes to the importance of cultural attitudes (dignity and stigma) of various economic and social activities. McCloskey claims that sustained economic growth and innovation were crucially dependent on the dignity of the bourgeois and their commercial activities. McCloskey’s fluent prose which interweaves empirical historical knowledge with literary allusions remains a model…

From Erwin's list on The best books to understand why cultural knowledge is essential to understand the economy.