Saturday 26 March 2016

Easter Break and McCloskey quotes

I'm off to south Queensland and Tasmania for this unusually-early Easter Break, which of course interrupts any and every reading routine for the last few weeks.


Have no despair, I fulfil my duty as an economic historian and re-read McCloskey's Bourgeois Dignity in anticipation of the last series of the Bourgeois era (Bourgeois Equality - How Ideas, not Capital or Institutions enriched the World ), due for release in mid-april (of course I pre-ordered it already). Here's a beautiful quote from Dignity that I didn't remember last time:

"Most people harbor beliefs about the origins of the modern economy that historical and economic science have shown to be mistaken. People believe, for example, that imperialism explains European riches. Or they believe that 'Capitalism' required a new class or a new self-consciousness about one's class (as against a new rhetoric about what an old class did). Or they believe that economic events must be explained 'ultimately', and every time, by material interests. Or they believe that it was trade unions and government protections that have elevated the working class. None of these is correct, as I hope to persuade you. The correct explanation is ideas." (p.xii)

When I'm not reading McCloskey's wonderful words, I'm trekking beautiful rainforests and enjoying the Queensland sunshine:

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