Adam Smith's America

This weekend, I’m reading an advance copy of Glory M. Liu’s forthcoming book, Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism. The book will be released in November, and next month I’ll record an interview with Liu for the Best New Ideas in Money podcast.

I first read Adam Smith as an undergraduate, in a course called The History of Economic Thought. Sadly, not many departments require that course any longer. But it’s the one that “grabbed” me and convinced me to add a B.A. in economics to the B.S. in finance I was working on at the time.

My professor had us use E.K. Hunt’s textbook, but he mostly required us to read original works. I remember reading John Stuart Mill, David Ricardo, Thorstein Veblen, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx and—of course—Adam Smith. I also remember that the professor who taught my European Economic History class would instinctively place her hand on her heart whenever she said the name Adam Smith.

We read Smith’s iconic book, The Wealth of Nations, but we also read his Theory of Moral Sentiments. As a student, I found Smith fascinating. But it’s been even more interesting to encounter his contributions as an economist who writes about both politics and economics. Centuries after his revolutionary works, Smith remains an influential figure, prized in both conservative and liberal circles. Liu’s book explores the tug-of-war over Adam Smith and his enduring impact on our policy discourse.

Here’s a bit of color from the publisher’s website.

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.