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...

A carefully curated selection of new and classic essays by Scottish Enlightenment expert Christopher J. BerryThis collection of essays by Christopher J. Berry spans several decades and multiple shifts across Scottish Enlightenment, Hume and Smith studies. It brings together classic essays –...

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part One -- I. Merchants and Knaves -- II. Farmers and Gentlemen -- III. The Laboring Poor -- IV. Big But Bad Business -- V. The Costs of Evil -- VI. The Learned and the Pious -- VII. A Better World for All -- Part Two -- VIII. False Prophets...