Adam Smith (1721-90) is a thinker with a distinctive perspective on human behaviour and social institutions. He is best known as the author of the 'An Inquiry into the Nature' and 'Causes of the Wealth of Nations' (1776). Yet his work is name-checked more often than it is read and then typically...

Adam Smith (1721-90) is a thinker with a distinctive perspective on human behaviour and social institutions. Yet his work is name-checked more often than it is read and then typically it is of an uninformed nature; that he is an apologist for capitalism a forceful promoter of self-interest, a...