An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Hackett Classics)

by Adam Smith (Author), Laurence Dickey (Adapter), Adam Smith (Author), Adam Smith (Author)

• New

  Collector's Edition
  1993

  $15.12

  This thoughtful new abridgment is enriched by the brilliant commentary which accompanies it. In it, Laurence Dickey argues that the Wealth of Nations contains--and conceals--a great deal of how Smith actually thought a commercial society works. Guided by his conviction that the so-called Adam Smith Problem--the relationship between ethics and economics in Smith's thinking--is a core element in the argument of the work itself, Dickey's commentary focuses on the devices Smith uses to ground his economics in broadly ethical and social categories. An unparalleled guide to an often difficult and perplexing work.

• Used

  Paperback
  1993

  $13.40

  Addressing the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, Adam Smith made one of the most potent contributions to subsequent ideological history. In the West since the early-19th century he has been the patron saint of homo economicus . More recently, successive British governments have invoked his policy recommendations of free trade and laissez-faire to aid their extension of privatization and market effectiveness into areas such as health and education. Smith, however, not only viewed merchants and manufacturers with deep suspicion, but also tempered his celebration of a self-regulating market with a darker vision of the dehumanizing potential of a profit-orientated society. He did not write an economics textbook, however, but rather a narrative about the struggle for individual liberty and general prosperity in history. This selected edition includes sections from all five books of the Wealth of Nations . It also provides full notes and a commentary that places Smith's work within a rich interdisciplinary environment.

• New

  Paperback
  1994

  $17.80