Adam Smith’s America
How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
The unlikely story of how Americans canonized Adam Smith as the patron saint of free markets
Originally published in 1776, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations was lauded by America’s founders as a landmark work of Enlightenment thinking about national wealth, statecraft, and moral virtue. Today, Smith is one of the most influential icons of economic thought in America. Glory Liu traces how generations of Americans have read, reinterpreted, and weaponized Smith’s ideas, revealing how his popular image as a champion of American-style capitalism and free markets is a historical invention.
Drawing on a trove of illuminating archival materials, Liu tells the story of how an unassuming Scottish philosopher captured the American imagination and played a leading role in shaping American economic and political ideas. She shows how Smith became known as the father of political economy in the nineteenth century and was firmly associated with free trade, and how, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the Chicago School of Economics transformed him into the preeminent theorist of self-interest and the miracle of free markets. Liu explores how a new generation of political theorists and public intellectuals has sought to recover Smith’s original intentions and restore his reputation as a moral philosopher.
Charting the enduring fascination that this humble philosopher from Scotland has held for American readers over more than two centuries, Adam Smith’s America shows how Smith continues to be a vehicle for articulating perennial moral and political anxieties about modern capitalism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harvard social studies researcher Liu debuts with an intricate and provocative analysis of Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith's influence on U.S. politics and business. Though Smith has become synonymous with the notion that "individuals pursuing their self-interest could promote the public good without intention or direction," Liu argues that this reputation "is neither historically accurate nor was it inevitable." Contending that the contemporary understanding of Smith is an American invention of relatively recent provenance, she traces its roots to the Chicago School of Economics' doctrine "that rational self-interest is the only valid premise for the analysis of human behavior, and that only the invisible hand of the market... could guarantee personal and political freedom." Noting that Smith's writings have been mobilized to defend many different positions over the years, Liu analyzes his paradoxical reputations in revolutionary France, imperial Germany, and early America. The version of Smith that rose to predominance under the auspices of the Chicago School after the Great Depression found practical expression in neoliberal policies and has resulted in a rigid belief that "capitalism must survive" and an unwillingness to look for alternatives, according to Liu, who warns that "Americans might be captive to the very ideas of an Adam Smith that invented." Granular yet accessible, this is a rewarding reconsideration of an influential thinker.
