Adam Smith

and the Pursuit of Perfect Liberty

James Buchan

ISBN 1861979053

April 2006

Price £14.99

Hardback, 192 pp.

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Subject: History

Other formats available: Paperback

A brilliant and controversial study by a master of the great Scottish philosopher and economist and his search for a just foundation for modern commercial society.

The Scottish Philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) was long ago adopted as the father of a neo-conservative ideology of unregulated business and small government. Politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan promoted Smith’s famous 1776 book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations as the bible of Anglo-Saxon laissez-faire. In the past ten years, modernising leftists such as Gordon Brown have tried to kidnap Smith for the reformed socialism of Britain’s New Labour.

In this vigorous, crisp and informal book, James Buchan shows that Smith fits no modern political category and that much of what politicians and economists say about him is false. After twenty-five years of studying Smith and his world, Buchan shows that The Wealth of Nations and Smith’s 1759 masterpiece, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, are just the brilliant fragments of one of the most ambitious philosophical enterprises ever attempted: the search for a just foundation for modern commercial society both in private and in public. As befits the most accessible of all philosophers, this biography does entirely without jargon.

‘A succinct and perceptive portrait of a man whose legacy is much referred to but little understood.’
— Guardian

‘A crisp and enjoyable biography of Smith …… a carefully drawn affectionate portrait … the book displays a mastery of the little details’
— Financial Times Magazine