Book Colloquium: Bourgeois Equality

In this book colloquium, a panel will discuss the concluding volume of economist and historian Deirdre McCloskey's trilogy celebrating the oft-derided virtues of the bourgeoisie — Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World. There’s little doubt that most humans today are better off than their forebears. The poorest of humanity, McCloskey shows, will soon be joining the comparative riches of Japan and Sweden and Botswana. Why? Most economists — from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to Thomas Piketty — say the Great Enrichment since 1800 came from accumulated capital. McCloskey disagrees, fiercely. “Our riches,” she argues, “were made not by piling brick on brick, bank balance on bank balance, but by piling idea on idea.” Capital was necessary, but it was ideas, not matter, that drove “trade-tested betterment.” Nor were institutions the drivers. The World Bank orthodoxy of “add institutions and stir” doesn’t work, and didn’t. McCloskey builds a powerful case for the initiating role of ideas — ideas for electric motors and free elections, of course, but more deeply the bizarre and liberal ideas of equal liberty and dignity for ordinary folk. Liberalism arose from theological and political revolutions in northwest Europe, yielding a unique respect for betterment and its practitioners, and upending ancient hierarchies. Commoners were encouraged to have a go, and the bourgeoisie took up the Bourgeois Deal, and we were all enriched. Few economists or historians write like McCloskey — her ability to invest the facts of economic history with the urgency of a novel, or of a leading case at law, is unmatched. She summarizes modern economics and modern economic history with verve and lucidity, yet sees through to the really big scientific conclusion. Not matter, but ideas. Participants include: Denis Galligan, Emeritus Professor of Socio-Legal Studies and Director of Programmes, Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, Oxford Dr Christopher Decker, Economist and Research Fellow, Faculty of Law, Oxford Praise for Bourgeois Equality Bourgeois Equality is richly detailed and erudite, and it will join its companion volumes as essential reading — Diane Coyle, The Financial Times A sparkling book. . . . McCloskey makes a convincing case — Martin Wolf, The Financial Times, Best Books of Early 2016