- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Profile Books; New Ed edition (10 May 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1861979401
- ISBN-13: 978-1861979407
- Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 820,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"'Concise, elegant and sympathetic...he has done Smith a service' Spectator 'The perfect celebration of a man who did so much to alter modern economic thinking' Daily Telegraph 'Crisp and enjoyable... a mastery of the little details' Financial Times Magazine"
Product Description
The new face of the £20 note, Adam Smith was long ago adopted as the father of a neo-conservative economic ideology, not least by Thatcher and Reagan. More recently New Labour has tried to kidnap him as an ancestor. In a vigorous and informal book James Buchan shows that Smith fits no modern political category. As befits the most accessible of all philosophers, this biography does entirely without jargon.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon U.K.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful little myth buster, 5 April 2008
By H. Schneider "Hamlet" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Adam Smith: and the Pursuit of Perfect Liberty (Hardcover)
Surprise in my shelf. I can't recall that I bought this book. I think it was a gift from the Economist for letting them pester me with a survey some time ago. It does not seem to be in the normal book trade. Is it a short version of a longer bio on Smith that came out later? Don't know at the moment.
Buchan's message is that Smith has been misappropriated by all sides.
Advocate of laissez faire? He did not use these words anywhere. Praising the invisible hand for the strengths of capitalism? The term 'invisible hand' shows up 3 times in the whole oeuvre, but never means what we assume it meant. We might as well have selected Defoe's working girl Moll Flanders for starting economics. She also spoke of the 'invisible hand'.
Smith was no free trade doctrinaire. He was not an economist, such a thing did not exist yet. He did not write about capitalism, such a concept was still unheard of.
It seems that the former British finance minister and current prime minister, who happens to be a country man of Smith, and happens to be called Giordano Bruno or something like that, has made an effort to claim Smith for some kind of Caledonian Socialism. Buchan dismisses such silliness.
Buchan makes a strong effort to launch Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments as a philosophical effort of equal importance with the Wealth of Nations. Possibly you need a more detailed bio if you really want to dig in. Buchan published one a year after this little book. Anyway, if you find this one somewhere, don't despise it.
(Buchan thinks that British economists and journalists are as literate and knowledgeable as English footballers. Can't help giggling, thinking about the standard Beckham interview...)
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Historical > 1901 Onwards
- Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > 1901 Onwards
- Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > Social & Urban History
- Books > Biography > Historical > Social & Urban History
- Books > Biography > Medical, Legal & Social Sciences > Philosophy
- Books > Biography > Political > Britain
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Philosophy
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
