The Bourgeois Era

Deirdre N. McCloskey

In this provocative reinterpretation of modern economic history, the origins of unprecedented prosperity are traced to a transformation in how Europeans understood and spoke about commerce, innovation, and the bourgeoisie. Challenging explanations centered on exploitation, institutions, class conflict, religion, or capital accumulation, the book argues that changing rhetoric helped grant entrepreneurial activity a new measure of dignity and legitimacy. Moving from the early modern period through the present, it explores how ideas and public approval interacted with markets to produce the conditions for the Industrial Revolution and sustained economic growth. Combining economic analysis with intellectual and cultural history, the work offers a bold account of why the modern world became so much wealthier.