“This is a gigantic book about a gigantic topic: the “great enrichment” of humanity over the last 300 years. It is so rich in vocabulary, allusions and facts that it can claim to be the great book of our era. Throw away your copy of Thomas Piketty and put McCloskey on your bookshelf instead." (The Times)

Most economists - from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to Thomas Piketty - argue that the Great Enrichment since 1800 was due accumulated capital. McCloskey argues that our wealth was created not by piling brick upon brick, bank balance upon bank balance, but by piling idea upon idea. Capital was necessary, but in the same way that oxygen is necessary for fire. Institutions were also not the driving force: the World Bank orthodoxy of “add institutions and mix” did not work. McCloskey argues for the initiating role of ideas - of course, the ideas of electric motors and free elections, but even more deeply - the whimsical and liberal ideas of equal freedom and dignity for ordinary people. Liberalism arose from theological and political revolutions in northwestern Europe, creating a unique respect for improvement and its practices and breaking down ancient hierarchies. The commoners were galvanized into action, the bourgeoisie accepted the “bourgeois deal,” and we all got rich.

Deirdre McCloskey is Professor Emeritus of Economics and History and Professor Emeritus of English and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago.