Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2018 -

This collection of essays celebrates Deirdre McCloskey as a colleague, scholar, and teacher. Her work ranges widely, from rhetoric in the social sciences to statistical significance and historical economics. This reviewer uses the present tense because there is no evidence that McCloskey is slowing down and, like Kenneth Arrow or Paul Samuelson, it might be necessary to prepare another festschrift in 10 or 20 years. As the title suggests, all of the articles except for one focus on McCloskey's most recent work, her three volumes on the origins of modern economic growth (CH, Jun'90, 27-6065),(CH, Nov'06, 44-1643),(CH, Oct'16, 54-0926). Two essays deserve special mention. First, "Queering McCloskey's Feminism in Location and History," by Robin L. Bartlett, is essential reading for any economist who wants to connect economics with wider currents in social science and the humanities. Second, Steven E. Landsburg's "McCloskey at Chicago" stands out as a heartfelt tribute to a McCloskey's role as a mentor inside and outside the classroom. More generally, the editors deserve credit for the uniformly high quality of the essays and the thorough introduction they provide at the beginning of the volume.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.