The Authentic Adam Smith: His Life and Ideas

Celebrated author James Buchan on the widely known—but often misread—Scottish philosopher Adam Smith. Adam Smith (1723-1790) has been adopted by neoconservatives as the ideological father of unregulated business and small government. His "invisible hand" has become a commanding shorthand for politicians promoting laissez-faire economics, but Smith never used it in reference to free-market capitalism. Smith was a deeply moral man who considered himself a philosopher, not an economist. Drawin...