On the Wealth of Nations: A Book That Shook the World
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"'O'Rourke is a glittering writer, light but punchy, wry and impassioned, witheringly witty one moment and rambunctiously sarcastic the next... This is a judicious, finely written book... consistently funny, with cracking asides and snarky interjections. If you're daunted by Wealth of Nations, O'Rourke's riff on it is the next best thing.' Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday 'Pithy, forceful and deliberately anachronistic... A witty book.' Andrew McKie, Daily Telegraph 'Sophisticated and comprehensive... whilst retaining the author's trademark wit... For those without the stomach to read the real thing, P. J. O'Rourke's book will provide an unusually enjoyable starting point.' Allister Heath, Literary Review"
Product Description
Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" was first published in 1776 and almost instantly it was recognized as fundamental to an understanding of economics. It was also recognized as being really long and as P. J. O'Rourke points out, to understand "The Wealth of Nations", the cornerstone of free-market thinking and a book that shapes the world to this day, you also need to peruse Smith's earlier doorstopper, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments." But now you don't have to read either, because P. J. has done it for you.In this hilarious work P. J. shows us why Smith is still relevant, why what seems obvious now was once revolutionary, and how the division of labour, freedom of trade and pursuit of self-interest espoused by Smith are not only vital to the welfare of mankind, they're funny too. He goes on to establish that far from being an avatar of capitalism, Smith was actually a moralist of liberty. As P. J. says, 'It's as if Smith, having proved that we can all have more money, then went on to prove that money doesn't buy happiness. And it doesn't. It rents it.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Notwithstanding PJ O'Rourke's unremitting neocon attitudes and affinities, I've been a fan since Republican Party Animal. There are some "truths" that are so universal in the Anglo-Saxon world view that they transcend ideology.
In picking up this book I had no delusions that I was going to learn much more about Adam Smith and The Wealth Of Nations than I'd already accumulated. If you were thinking about buying it for that purpose then I'd say you were very, very lazy, and not about to win a Nobel for much, least of all Economics.
I was looking to be entertained.
Unfortunately, PJ seems to have been on an off day when he wrote this, and in total contrast with some of the other books of his I'd read, this one left me a little flat and unamused, a bit on a par with Modern Manners rather than Holidays In Hell, a book I found diverting, hilarious, informative and thought-provoking, and which I've been quoting since I read it.
Nevertheless, where O'Rourke does succeed is in giving a context for Smith's work, providing some biographical detail, such as the economist's acquaintance with James Watt, and giving some salience to the lesser-known The Theory Of Moral Sentiments, and it is in places such as this that PJ does manage to give some value.
In picking up this book I had no delusions that I was going to learn much more about Adam Smith and The Wealth Of Nations than I'd already accumulated. If you were thinking about buying it for that purpose then I'd say you were very, very lazy, and not about to win a Nobel for much, least of all Economics.
I was looking to be entertained.
Unfortunately, PJ seems to have been on an off day when he wrote this, and in total contrast with some of the other books of his I'd read, this one left me a little flat and unamused, a bit on a par with Modern Manners rather than Holidays In Hell, a book I found diverting, hilarious, informative and thought-provoking, and which I've been quoting since I read it.
Nevertheless, where O'Rourke does succeed is in giving a context for Smith's work, providing some biographical detail, such as the economist's acquaintance with James Watt, and giving some salience to the lesser-known The Theory Of Moral Sentiments, and it is in places such as this that PJ does manage to give some value.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
P J O'Rourke - he of Republican Party Reptile - is a gifted, witty and acerbic writer but one whose views, even when on his mettle, one should take wth a pinch of salt: more useful as an antidote to loony-tunes leftie thinking than as a properly constructive conservative alternative. As with all politically committed writers, left or right, his core analysis tends to be glib: the brushstrokes with which he paints the world are vigorous but, like many paintings that look good at a distance, they don't always bear close examination.
Expounding on Adam Smith's classic The Wealth of Nations, then, O'Rourke both is and isn't on home turf. *Is* in that, superficially, Smith is the godfather of O'Rourke's libertarian, optimistic, Republican brand of economics in observing that the natural opposition of interests of buyers and sellers is a functional tension such that folks left to their own devices will, quite without meaning to, generally act is a way which is constructive and efficient in its allocation of resources. *Isn't* in that O'Rourke is a journalist and a polemicist not an economist, much less a moral philosopher (though to give him credit he makes no bones whatever about that) and Smith's 900 page tome is a far more nuanced volume than its hackneyed headline about the invisible hand - which is all most of us know about it: hence O'Rourke's book - suggests.
To his credit, also, O'Rourke has also spent time assimlating Smith's companion (and much less well known) volume A Theory of Moral Sentiments, and does some good work to contextualise Wealth of Nations by reference to it.
All the same, O'Rourke's simplistic economic viewpoint - and sardonic air - remain untroubled by Smith's nuance, and at times this entry drifts closer to representing O'Rourke's own theory of the Wealth of Nations rather than considering Smith's. Most readers will have far less interest in that, no matter how funny it might be, particularly as O'Rourke has had a go at that book already, a decade ago, in Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics, and more particularly because on this outing O'Rourke's wit isn't as sharp, nor his insight as valuable, as it can be.
In any case you can be sure that P J O'Rourke wouldn't need 900 pages to expound his theory. You could write it on a cocktail napkin (Eat The Rich notwithstanding), and for all his praise of Adam Smith's pragmatism in the face of ideologically driven idealism (anachronistic though it may be, at the time of publication the dread socialism being still a good century and more hence) O'Rourke's laissez-faire view of the world is as idealistic as any, supposing as it does perfectly rational actors, a complete absence of government, ubiquity of perfect information and an omnipresent infinity of buyers and sellers, and (as we can now say in November 2008 with 20:20 hindsight) just as flawed: there are, we know know, times where even perfectly rational actors simply won't act and in these times the invisible hand without so much as a by-your-leave vanishes altogether and the only credible mechanic left to deal with the black swans carousing about is good old nanny state. And Warren Buffett.
This is by no means a bad book, and for those interested in a *somewhat* deeper reading of The Wealth Of Nations, more pleasant than the one that can be had by actually reading it, step forward - but bring that salt cellar. For this P J O'Rourke book more than any, you'll be needing it.
Olly Buxton
Expounding on Adam Smith's classic The Wealth of Nations, then, O'Rourke both is and isn't on home turf. *Is* in that, superficially, Smith is the godfather of O'Rourke's libertarian, optimistic, Republican brand of economics in observing that the natural opposition of interests of buyers and sellers is a functional tension such that folks left to their own devices will, quite without meaning to, generally act is a way which is constructive and efficient in its allocation of resources. *Isn't* in that O'Rourke is a journalist and a polemicist not an economist, much less a moral philosopher (though to give him credit he makes no bones whatever about that) and Smith's 900 page tome is a far more nuanced volume than its hackneyed headline about the invisible hand - which is all most of us know about it: hence O'Rourke's book - suggests.
To his credit, also, O'Rourke has also spent time assimlating Smith's companion (and much less well known) volume A Theory of Moral Sentiments, and does some good work to contextualise Wealth of Nations by reference to it.
All the same, O'Rourke's simplistic economic viewpoint - and sardonic air - remain untroubled by Smith's nuance, and at times this entry drifts closer to representing O'Rourke's own theory of the Wealth of Nations rather than considering Smith's. Most readers will have far less interest in that, no matter how funny it might be, particularly as O'Rourke has had a go at that book already, a decade ago, in Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics, and more particularly because on this outing O'Rourke's wit isn't as sharp, nor his insight as valuable, as it can be.
In any case you can be sure that P J O'Rourke wouldn't need 900 pages to expound his theory. You could write it on a cocktail napkin (Eat The Rich notwithstanding), and for all his praise of Adam Smith's pragmatism in the face of ideologically driven idealism (anachronistic though it may be, at the time of publication the dread socialism being still a good century and more hence) O'Rourke's laissez-faire view of the world is as idealistic as any, supposing as it does perfectly rational actors, a complete absence of government, ubiquity of perfect information and an omnipresent infinity of buyers and sellers, and (as we can now say in November 2008 with 20:20 hindsight) just as flawed: there are, we know know, times where even perfectly rational actors simply won't act and in these times the invisible hand without so much as a by-your-leave vanishes altogether and the only credible mechanic left to deal with the black swans carousing about is good old nanny state. And Warren Buffett.
This is by no means a bad book, and for those interested in a *somewhat* deeper reading of The Wealth Of Nations, more pleasant than the one that can be had by actually reading it, step forward - but bring that salt cellar. For this P J O'Rourke book more than any, you'll be needing it.
Olly Buxton
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you buy this book expecting an erudite and thoughtful synopsis of Adam Smiths magnus opus (and what other reason is there to buy it) you are going to be deeply disappointed. P.J.O'Rourke gives a very basic and shallow rundown of Smith's ideas that manages to be both condescending and downright dumb. I would have thought the audience for this book would already have some idea of Smith's work and would want to expand their knowledge with the help of some considered insights. Instead the reader is subjected to a series of puerile one-liners and an analysis that suggests O'Rourke didn't bother to read the book either but chose to depend on CliffsNotes as his source material. My advice would be to go straight to the CliffsNotes and spare yourself the pain of wondering when and how the great P.J.O'Rourke got to be so unfunny!
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