Description
Book SynopsisA counter to the popular impression that Adam Smith was a champion of selfishness and greed. It shows that the Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations maintained that markets served to promote the well-being of the populace and that government must intervene to counteract the negative effects of the pursuit of self-interest.
Trade Review"A profoundly erudite and timely study."--John Gray, National Review "Muller's great accomplishment in this book is to present a clear, thoughtful, and engaging overview of Adam Smith's thought. He reveals Smith to be a wide-ranging and innovative thinker who formulated a comprehensive social science."--Peter McNamara, The Review of Politics
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Back to Adam?1Pt. IAdam Smith in His Time1Cosmopolitan Provincial: Smith's Life and Social Milieu152Gentlemen, Consumers, and the Fiscal-Military State283Self-Love and Self-Command: The Intellectual Origins of Smith's Civilizing Project39Pt. IIDesigning the Decent Society4The Market: From Self-Love to Universal Opulence635The Legislator and the Merchant776Social Science as the Anticipation of the Unanticipated847Commercial Humanism: Smith's Civilizing Project938"The Impartial Spectator"1009The Historical and Institutional Foundations of Commercial Society11310The Moral Balance Sheet of Commercial Society13111The Visible Hand of the State14012Applied Policy Analysis: Smith's Sociology of Religion15413"A Small Party": Moral and Political Leadership in Commercial Society164Pt. IIIFrom Smith's Time to Ours14Critics, Friendly and Unfriendly17715Some Unanticipated Consequences of Smith's Rhetoric18516The Timeless and the Timely194Notes206Guide to Further Reading240Acknowledgments262Index265
