Description
Book Synopsis''A superb book'' Financial Times, Books of the Year
Adam Smith is now widely regarded as ''the father of modern economics'' and the most influential economist who ever lived. But what he really thought, and what the implications of his ideas are, remain fiercely contested. Was he an eloquent advocate of capitalism and the freedom of the individual? Or a prime mover of ''market fundamentalism'' and an apologist for inequality and human selfishness? Or something else entirely? Jesse Norman''s brilliantly conceived ook gives us not just Smith''s economics, but his vastly wider intellectual project. Against the turbulent backdrop of Enlightenment Scotland, it lays out a succinct and highly engaging account of Smith''s life and times, reviews his work as a whole and traces his influence over the past two centuries.
But this book is not only a biography. It dispels the myths and debunks the caricatures that have grown up around Adam Smith. It exp
Trade Review
This splendid book not only presents an excellent introduction to the life and ideas of Adam Smith, but also explains why - and how - Smith's insights can help us solve some of the most difficult social and economic problems of the contemporary world. Smith loved lucidity and relevance, and I think he would have been very happy with Norman's book. -- Amartya Sen
Masterly ... amid the superficiality and hysterics of modern British politics, an admirably thoughtful brain is lurking -- Edward Lucas * The Times *
An important work of revisionist biography with a direct and important impact on the intellectual underpinnings of liberal free-market thought -- Oliver Letwin * Telegraph *
Superb ... Norman succeeds in demonstrating the coherence and subtlety of Adam Smith's thought -- Martin Wolf * Financial Times (Books of the Year) *
A remarkable and intensely readable book ... a rejoinder to those who fear that the intellectual has disappeared from politics -- John Kay * Financial Times *
This book is well-written, well-argued and intensely thought-provoking, and it will rightly raise Smith's posthumous reputation -- Simon Heffer * Spectator *
