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[Policy Scholars](/experts) 

# Deirdre N. McCloskey 

Distinguished Scholar, Isaiah Berlin Chair in Liberal Thought

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Deirdre Nansen McCloskey is a distinguished scholar and Isaiah Berlin Chair in Liberal Thought at the Cato Institute. She is also a distinguished professor emerita of economics and of history and professor emerita of English and of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After getting her PhD in economics at Harvard, she taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa. She has written 24 books and some 400 academic and popular articles on economic theory, economic history, philosophy, rhetoric, statistical theory, feminism, ethics, and law.

McCloskey’s recent books include *The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Capitalism* (University of Chicago Press, 2006); *Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World* (University of Chicago Press, 2010); *Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World* (University of Chicago Press, 2016); *Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All* (Yale University Press, 2019); and, with Art Carden, *Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich: The Bourgeois Deal* (University of Chicago Press, 2020).

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##### Featured Book 

### *[Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All](https://www.amazon.com/Why-Liberalism-Works-Liberal-Prosperous/dp/0300235089)*

The greatest challenges facing humankind, according to Deirdre McCloskey, are poverty and tyranny, both of which hold people back. Arguing for a return to true liberal values, this engaging and accessible book develops, defends, and demonstrates how embracing the ideas first espoused by eighteenth-century philosophers like Locke, Smith, Voltaire, and Wollstonecraft is good for everyone.

[Read about the Book](https://www.amazon.com/Why-Liberalism-Works-Liberal-Prosperous/dp/0300235089) 

![Economical Writing cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/promo_block_book_cover_1x/public/2024-11/economical-writing-cover.jpg?itok=9fomEnsf) 

##### Featured Book 

### *[Economical Writing, Third Edition: Thirty-Five Rules for Clear and Persuasive Prose](https://www.amazon.com/Economical-Writing-Third-Thirty-Five-Persuasive/dp/022644807X)*

Economics is not a field that is known for good writing. Charts, yes. Sparkling prose, no. 

Except, that is, when it comes to Deirdre Nansen McCloskey. Her conversational and witty yet always clear style is a hallmark of her classic works of economic history, enlivening the dismal science and engaging readers well beyond the discipline. And now she’s here to share the secrets of how it’s done.

[Read about the Book](https://www.amazon.com/Economical-Writing-Third-Thirty-Five-Persuasive/dp/022644807X)