The Essential Adam Smith

by Adam Smith

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The sheer strength of his great work, The Wealth of Nations, discourages many from attempting to explore its rich and lucid arguments. In this brilliantly crafted volume, one of the most eminent economists of our day provides a generous selection from the entire body of Smith's work, ranging from his fascinating psychological observations on human nature to his famous treatise on what Smith called a "society of natural liberty," The Wealth of Nations.Among the works represented in this volume in addition to The Wealth of Nations are The History of Astronomy, Lectures on Jurisprudence, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and Smith's correspondence with David Hume.Before each of Smith's writings Robert Heilbroner presents a clear and lively discussion that will interest the scholar as much as it will clarify the work for the non-specialist. Adam Smith emerges from this collection of his writings, as he does from his portrait in Professor Heilbroner's well-known book, as the first economist to deserve the title of "worldly philosopher."… (more)

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Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber (M_Clark)
M_Clark: The Graebner book disagrees with many of Adam Smith's theories about how money and commerce evolved. Unlike Adam Smith, Graeber provides evidence of his statements from anthropologists and archaeologists.

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The Wealth of Nations deserves to be considered a classic. It is also very much readable, even today. This Essential edition has been edited by Robert Heilbroner who, fortunately, decided to summarize and omit a number of chapters which helps keep it easy to read. The edition also includes a number of other writings by Adam Smith as well as a few letters with David Hume. Some of these other writings were worth reading but, I confess skipping through his Moral Sentiments quickly.

One of the reasons The Wealth of Nations is interesting to read is that Smith is trying to persuade his readers and he does so with simple examples from his time. These examples make his point very well and illustrate the economic principles in a way that many current economic textbooks do not. The weakness of the book is his speculation on the early history of money and commerce. His armchair version of history has not borne up to sociological research on primitive societies. (

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M_Clark | May 27, 2018 |

Adam Smith is often misrepresented by both Left and Right. While there is no really easy way to study what he actually said, this book is the easiest. There are some good comments on Adam Smith, and this book in particular, at Relentlessly Progressive Economics. (

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Anitra | Dec 28, 2006 |

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The sheer strength of his great work, The Wealth of Nations, discourages many from attempting to explore its rich and lucid arguments. In this brilliantly crafted volume, one of the most eminent economists of our day provides a generous selection from the entire body of Smith's work, ranging from his fascinating psychological observations on human nature to his famous treatise on what Smith called a "society of natural liberty," The Wealth of Nations.Among the works represented in this volume in addition to The Wealth of Nations are The History of Astronomy, Lectures on Jurisprudence, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and Smith's correspondence with David Hume.Before each of Smith's writings Robert Heilbroner presents a clear and lively discussion that will interest the scholar as much as it will clarify the work for the non-specialist. Adam Smith emerges from this collection of his writings, as he does from his portrait in Professor Heilbroner's well-known book, as the first economist to deserve the title of "worldly philosopher."

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Extracts from the writings of Adam Smith, the founder of Political Economy, by a leading democratic socialist who is a proclaimed enemy of the "system of natural liberty" being described by Adam Smith.

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