The Unseen Work: Stewart Brand on Maintenance and Civilization

There were two types of slaves in Scotland during Adam Smith’s lifetime. The first were chattel slaves of African descent. This is what most people envision today when they think about slavery—people who are regarded solely as property with no recourse or relief, even in the face of the most torturous conditions. The second were… MORE

This month marks the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations. The Liberty Fund print edition is 950 pages (excluding material added by the editors) and just about every page is chock full of wisdom. While there are some flaws, we rightfully celebrate this book as the monumental leap forward to… MORE

We’re joining our friends at Liberty Matters in their celebration of the 250th anniversary of the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations through a series of six weekly essays. In this fourth essay, Brianne Wolf explores Book IV of Wealth of Nations, where Smith discusses the mercantile system,… MORE

Today marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith‘s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations on March 9, 1776. Wealth of Nations remains a remarkable book, not only establishing Adam Smith as “the father of economics” but laying a part of the foundation for liberal political theory. The… MORE

For Smith, moral philosophy is the study of virtue and the faculty of mind that allows us to determine what is praise- or blameworthy conduct. When we understand the project of the moral sentiments, we can see that Smith adopts the same logic in his analysis of political economy. Political economy provides a lens through… MORE

Image of Adam Smith in the style of Cezanne. Generated by DALL-E OpenAI software, based on public domain material. Many scholars, especially from other disciplines, have voiced concerns regarding a simplified interpretation of Adam Smith’s ideas in modern economics, asserting that it has been exploited to advance a particular free market ideology. For example, in… MORE

Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan (1919-2013) was recorded in 2001 in an extended video now available to the public. Universally respected as one of the founders of the economics of public choice, he is the author of numerous books and hundreds of articles in the areas of public finance, public choice, constitutional economics, and economic… MORE

A five-part short video series on the life and contemporary relevance of Adam Smith. This video series, produced by AdamSmithWorks, can be watch as a full 38-minute feature, or in five thematic, classroom-friendly chunks. To access all, click here.   Below are some discussion prompts related to this video:   Part 1: The Invisible Hand… MORE

The twentieth century witnessed the unparalleled expansion of government power over the lives and livelihoods of individuals. Much of this was the result of two devastating world wars and totalitarian ideologies that directly challenged individual liberty and the free institutions of the open society. Other forms of expansion in the provision of social welfare and… MORE

  Douglass North shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in economics with robert fogel “for having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change.” North earned his Ph.D. in economics at the University of California at Berkeley, but by his own admission learned how… MORE

  With The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith installed himself as the leading expositor of economic thought. Currents of Adam Smith run through the works published by David Ricardo and Karl Marx in the nineteenth century, and by John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman in the twentieth. Adam Smith was born in a small village… MORE

For more than two centuries economists have steadfastly promoted free trade among nations as the best trade policy. Despite this intellectual barrage, many “practical” men and women continue to view the case for free trade skeptically, as an abstract argument made by ivory tower economists with, at most, one foot on terra firma. These practical… MORE