The big economic story of our times is not the Great Recession. It is how China and India began to embrace neoliberal ideas of economics and attributed a sense of dignity and liberty to the bourgeoisie they had denied for so long. The result was an explosion in economic growth and proof that economic change depends less on foreign trade, investment, or material causes, and a whole lot more on ideas and what people believe. Or so says Deirdre N. McCloskey in "Bourgeois Dignity", a fiercely contrarian history that wages a similar argument about economics in the West. Here she turns her attention to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe to reconsider the birth of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism. According to McCloskey, our modern world was not the product of new markets, but rather the result of shifting opinions about them. An utterly fascinating sequel to her critically acclaimed book "The Bourgeois Virtues", "Bourgeois Dignity" is a feast of intellectual riches from one of our most spirited and ambitious historians.

迪尔德丽 N. 麦克罗斯基（Deirdre N. McCloskey）出生于1942年，当时叫唐纳德 N. 麦克罗斯基（Donald N. McCloskey），她是美国的经济学教授。她在伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校（UIC）的职称是经济学、历史学、英语和传播学特聘教授。迪尔德丽也兼任哲学和古希腊、古罗马文学教授，此前五年，她在鹿特丹的伊拉斯谟大学担任经济学、哲学、历史学、英语以及艺术和文化方面的特聘教授。自2007年10月以来，迪尔德丽已经获得了两个荣誉博士头衔。

迪尔德丽在哈佛大学接受了经济学训练，她写过十四本书，编辑过七本，发表了360篇文章，涉及经济理论、经济史、哲学、修辞学、女权主义、伦理学和法学。迪尔德丽在芝加哥大学从事经济学教学十二年，现在她称自己是一个“后现代、自由市场阶段、追求定量标准、属于圣公会、支持女权主义的亚里士多德学派学者”。