Materially Blessed are the Middle Classes,for They are Virtuous: A Review Essay on Deirdre McCloskey’s Bourgeois Trilogy

Abstract

This essay reviews Deirdre McCloskey’s trilogy in political economy: Bourgeois Virtues, Bourgeois Dignity, and Bourgeois Equality. In this trilogy McCloskey seeks to reestablish the ethical, historical, and political legitimacy of modern capitalism. Success of the project is offset by misapprehension of normativity and thus of how human economy is ethical.