Chicago Magazine‘s June issue features a candid interview with Deirdre N. McCloskey, author of The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce.

Q: During the last decade you have tackled a major personal change—your gender reassignment—and a major professional undertaking, the writing of Bourgeois Virtues, a sweeping defense of capitalism. Which did you find most challenging?
A: I’ve been working on the book for 12 years. Finishing it was very satisfying. But the biggest challenge was the gender change. Of course, there was opposition to both. I had to go out on thin ice in both cases.

Read the entire interview.
Read an excerpt from The Bourgeois Virtues; we also have an excerpt from McCloskey’s memoir, Crossing.