It’s that time of year yet again. The skies are grey, the sidewalks are dusted with snow, and the biting winter wind slices through each clothing layer like butter. Naturally, we all know these to be signs of everyone’s favorite end-of-January holiday: Hug An Economist Day! Each January 31st, the
Posts tagged as “economics”
Phenomenal World Books is a new publishing endeavor that seeks to elevate the political-economic investigations necessary to understanding the social world. Aimed at cohering a resurgent disciplinary alliance of economics and history, and oriented broadly at the categories of political economy and critical social science, the series features single- and
The time has come. Flat, blue skies press down overhead, a few eager leaves begin to wither on their branches, and there’s the slightest coolness carried on lazy afternoon breezes that can only mean one thing: summer is ending. And in its annual death knell, another Labor Day weekend is
In their new book, Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich, economists Deirdre McCloskey and Art Carden summarize what they call “The Bourgeois Deal.” In short: when we leave people alone to buy low, sell high, and innovate, they do so—and in the ...
Contemporary debate around inequality is centered on a common theme: capital. Capital, broadly speaking, is wealth. People who have capital enjoy more leverage, security, and flexibility in their economic lives. Capital in the Nineteenth Century is a history of how and where capital was originated and consolidated in the United States’ first century as an independent nation. It is an utterly original and painstaking work of economic history, one that illustrates the power of the field to inform our thorniest debates in the present. Here, the eminent economist Claudia Goldin recounts the origins of the project: an unexpected (and not entirely organized) mailing from the late Robert Gallman. In August 1998 a large envelope arrived from Bob Gallman, who was then a distinguished economic historian at the University of North Carolina. Inside was an unwieldy set of chapters that Bob was asking me to consider for the National Bureau of Economic Research monograph series, Long Term Factors in Economic Development, for which I served as editor for almost three decades. Bob and I had no prior discussions of the book he was proposing, which is not to say I was surprised by the manuscript’s arrival since I knew Bob had […]
The post Economist Claudia Goldin on the Origins of “Capital in the Nineteenth Century” appeared first on The Chicago Blog.
Chad Zimmerman recently joined the Press as executive editor in the Books Division, acquiring new titles in economics, business, and public policy. Chad came to us from Oxford University Press, where he worked most recently as a senior editor building a robust list in public health, including books in health economics and policy. We’ve been excited to welcome him not only to the Press but to Chicago, and by way of introduction, we put together some questions about his interests. What are you looking for in a book, and what kind of project gets you excited? Voice. That is a terribly nonspecific answer, but hear me out: Most people who write books are experts in what they’re writing about. Whether their book is any good depends on how they express (and in many cases, limit) their knowledge for the good of the reader. That expression takes the form of their writing voice. And writing voice comprises not just narration, but also how the work is structured. Reading is a “what’s in it for me?” activity. It is the author’s job to respect their reader and meet them on their level, whether that’s expert or non-expert. Very few authors have the […]
The post Five Questions with Chad Zimmerman, Executive Editor for Economics appeared first on The Chicago Blog.
In his new book, Samuel Fleischacker delves into the work of Adam Smith to draw out an understanding of empathy that respects both personal difference and shared humanity. We sent him a few questions to learn more about Smith, empathy, and how it all relates to our world today. Your book uses the philosophy of Adam Smith to explore the nature and value of empathy. To start us off, can you give us a quick introduction to Smithian empathy? Smithian empathy is the kind of shared feeling that arises when I imagine myself into your situation. David Hume had understood empathy (what he and Smith called “sympathy”—the word “empathy” wasn’t invented until after their time) as my feeling whatever you feel. Smith understands it as my feeling what I think I would feel if I were you, in your situation. Hume’s empathy is a kind of contagious feeling—I “catch” your feelings, whether of sadness or of joy, whether I want to do that or not. Smith’s empathy requires more action on our part and depends on imagination. I try to show that Smith’s kind of empathy is deeper and more important to morality. What drew you to Adam Smith, and to the topic of empathy […]
The post 6 Questions with Samuel Fleischacker, author of “Being Me Being You: Adam Smith and Empathy” appeared first on The Chicago Blog.
Patagonia Is Innovating & We Need to Do More, a Guest Post from the authors of “Democratize Work”
In Democratize Work: The Case for Reorganizing the Economy sociologists Isabelle Ferreras, Julie Battilana, and Dominique Méda interrogate how capitalism has dwarfed democracy, leading to the monumental challenges facing us from our workplaces to our collapsing environments. In this thoughtful piece below, they speak about the book’s themes and their