Power, Prose, and Purse is an edited collection of essays that draw connections between literature, economics and law. The essays discuss novels that explore the time period between the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression and analyze the insights that novelists may offer to law and economics, while noting the tensions among these paradigms.

Introduction Part One. Swindlers or Entrepreneurs? Susanna Blumenthal, Counterfeiting Confidence: The Problem of Trust in the Age of Contract Nicola Lacey, Gamblers and Gentlefolk: Money, Law and Status in Trollope's England Saul Levmore, Regulating Greed: Biographical Markers in Dos Passos' The Big Money Martha C. Nussbaum, The Morning and the Evening Star: Religion, Money, and Love in Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt and Elmer Gantry Justin Driver, Jay Gatsby, Justice Douglas, and the Significance of Class in American Society Part Two. Preferences and Capitalists Jonathan S. Masur & Seebany Data-Barua, Wealth and Warfare in the Novels of Jane Austen Alison LaCroix, Commerce, Law, and Revolution in the Novels of Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Bront Robin West, Bartleby's Consensual Dysphoria Martha C. Nussbaum, Love from the Point of View of the Universe: Walt Whitman and the Utilitarian Imagination Douglas G. Baird, Money and Art in Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward Laura Weinrib, The Second New Deal and the Fourth Courtroom Wall: Law, Labor, and Liberty in The Cradle Will Rock Carol M. Rose, Raisin, Race, and the Real Estate Revolution of the Early 20th Century Part Three. Optimism and Pessimism Richard H. McAdams, The Grapes of Wrath, Economics, and Luck Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, Irish (and English and American) Poets, Learn Your Trade: Law and Economics in Poetry

Selling point: Draws connections between literature, economics and law Selling point: Discusses novels that explore the time period between the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression Selling point: Focuses on novels about money and economic upheaval Selling point: Showcases the power of the disciplinary marriage of law and literature

Alison LaCroix is Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law and an Associate Member of the Department of History at the University of Chicago. Saul Levmore is William B. Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics in the Law School and the Philosophy Department at the University of Chicago

Selling point: Draws connections between literature, economics and law Selling point: Discusses novels that explore the time period between the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression Selling point: Focuses on novels about money and economic upheaval Selling point: Showcases the power of the disciplinary marriage of law and literature