A classic in its field, this pathbreaking book humanized the scientific rhetoric of economics to reveal its literary soul. "McCloskey's target is the pretentious scientism in which economists couch their mutual persuasions--a scientism that lingers on as the near-official language of economics discourse long after its inadequacies have been recognized by philosophers and scientists".--NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS.

The essays in Goddesses and Monsters recognize popular culture as a primary repository of ancient mythic energies, images, narratives, personalities, icons, and archetypes. Together, they take on the patriarchal myth, where serial killers are heroes, where goddesses--in the form of great white sharks, femmes fatales, and aliens--are ritually slaughtered, and where pornography is the core story underlying militarism, environmental devastation, and racism. They also point to an alternative imagination of female power that still can be found behind the cult devotion given to Princess Diana and animating all the goddesses disguised as popular monsters, queen bitches, mammies, vamps, cyborgs, and sex bombs.