The Essential Adam Smith - Hardcover

Smith, Adam; Heilbroner, Robert (editor)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393022919 ISBN 13: 9780393022919

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated, 1986

Synopsis

In this volume one of the most eminent economists of the day provides a selection from the entire body of Smith's work, ranging from his observations on the psychological nature of man to his famous treatise on what Smith called a 'society of natural liberty', The Wealth of Nations. Other works represented in this volume are The History of Astronomy, Lectures on Jurisprudence, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and Smith's correspondence with David Hume. Before each of Smith's writings, Robert Heilbroner presents a discussion which will both interest the scholar and clarify the work for the non-specialist. any reader interested in the works of Adam Smith; students in the history of economic thought.

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Reviews

Founding father of economic conservatism, Smith nevertheless sympathized with the working class and scorned landlords and other capitalists whom he deemed incapable of heeding public regulations. Today his books are frequently quoted yet seldom read. To remedy this situation, Heilbroner (The Worldly Philosophers has done an admirable job of abridging The Wealth of Nations and Smith's other major writings. Current debate has centered on Smith's theory of the "Invisible Hand," the self-regulating mechanism of a free-market economy, which has proved increasingly irrelevant in the face of structural unemployment and large-scale industry. But Heilbroner points out that the Invisible Hand, far more than a ghostly economic planner, was meant to provide the underpinnings for a workable system of social and moral order. Heilbroner emphasizes that Smith was far less optimistic than many people assume; though he considered capitalism the basis for personal freedom, he expected that both the propertied class and the workers would push for their narrow self-interests. The skillfully edited selections cut through Smith's cant and rhetoric.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393022919
• ISBN 13: 9780393022919
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1