This volume is the result of a conference held at Wellesley College, involving both theoretical and applied economists, that explored the consequences of the rhetoric and the conversation of the field of economics.

Preface; Part I. Economic Rhetoric: Introduction and Comments: 1. Economics in the human conversation Arjo Klamer and Donald N. McCloskey; 2. Comments from outside economics Stanley Fish; 3. Comments from inside economics Robert M. Solow; 4. Rhetoric and ideology Robert L. Heilbroner; Part II. Economic Rhetoric: Further Arguments: 5. Marxian theory and the rhetorics of economics Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff; 6. Economic rhetoric: the social and historical context A. W. Coats; 7. The ideas of economists Robert W. Clower; 8. Should a scientist abstain from metaphor? Christina Bicchieri; Part III. Economic Rhetoric Among Economists: 9. Shall I compare thee to a Minkowski-Ricardo-Leontief-Metzler matrix of the Mosak-Hicks type? Or, rhetoric, mathematics, and the nature of neoclassical economic theory Philip Mirowski; 10. On the brittleness of the orange equilibrium E. Roy Weintraub; 11. The significance of significance: rhetorical aspects of statistical hypothesis testing in economics Frank T. Denton; 12. The rhetoric of self-interest: ideology of gender in economic theory Nancy Folbre and Heidi Hartmann; Part IV. Economic Rhetoric in Politics and Journalism: 13. The heterogeneity of the economists' discourse: philosopher, priest, and hired gun Craufurd D. Goodwin; 14. The grammar of political economy James K. Galbraith; 15. The rhetoric of economics as viewed by a student of politics Robert O. Keohane; 16. 'Yellow rain' and 'supply-side economics': some rhetoric that failed David Warsh; Part V. Economic Rhetoric: Its Rhetoric and its Consequences: 17. Negotiating a new conversation about economics Arjo Klamer; 18. The consequences of rhetoric Donald N. McCloskey; Appendix; Index.