Adam Smith Reconsidered: History, Liberty, and the Foundations of Modern Politics

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A radical reinterpretation of Adam Smith that challenges economists, moral philosophers, political theorists, and intellectual historians to rethink him and why he matters

Adam Smith has long been recognised as the father of modern economics. More recently, scholars have emphasised his standing as a moral philosopherone who was prepared to critique markets as well as to praise them. But Smiths contributions to political theory are still underappreciated and relatively neglected. In this bold, revisionary book, Paul Sagar argues that not only have the fundamentals of Smiths political thought been widely misunderstood, but that once we understand them correctly, our estimations of Smith as economist and as moral philosopher must radically change.

Rather than seeing Smith either as the prophet of the free market, or as a moralist who thought the dangers of commerce lay primarily in the corrupting effects of trade, Sagar shows why Smith is more thoroughly a political thinker who made major contributions to the history of political thought. Smith, Sagar argues, saw war, not commerce, as the engine of political change and he was centrally concerned with the political, not moral, dimensions of and threats to commercial societies. In this light, the true contours and power of Smiths foundational contributions to western political thought emerge as never before.

Offering major reinterpretations of Smiths political, moral, and economic ideas, Adam Smith Reconsidered seeks to revolutionise how he is understood. In doing so, it recovers Smiths original way of doing political theory, one rooted in the importance of history and the necessity of maintaining a realist sensibility, and from which we still have much to learn.

Reviews

"To call it revisionist is to understate its ambitions; revolutionary might be more appropriate."---Max Skjnsberg, Adam Smith Works
"[A]n excellent book, a book which has some claim to be the most decisive contribution to the understanding of the importance of the relevance of the eighteenth century to modern political thought published in the last half-century."---James Alexander, European Journal of Political Theory
"Sagars emphasis on putting the political back into the study of Smithian political economy bears significant fruit. . . . In this volume Sagar has given us a Smith worth reconsidering, and, indeed, one worth encountering again for insights into the virtues, vices, strengths, and weaknesses of the modern world."---Jordan J. Ballor, Law & Liberty
"Richly rewarding, always intelligent. . . . All students of Smiths political, historical, and moral thought should read Sagars book, and in that spirit I heartily commend this volume to fellow Smithian scholars."---Christopher J. Berry, Perspectives on Politics
"Sagar delivers a fresh Smith, a rather unusual and highly complex thinker, far outstripping his caricature. Sagars volume resets the clock on Smith studies.Adam Smith Reconsidered: History, Liberty, and the Foundations of Modern Politics is a first-rate book."---Graham James McAleer, Perspectives on Political Science
"A model of historical political scholarship."---Philip Bunn, The Review of Politics
"[A] thoughtful and insightful addition to the secondary literature on Smith."---Jason Ferrell, Society

Author Bio

Paul Sagar is senior lecturer in political theory at Kings College London and the author of The Opinion of Mankind: Sociability and the Theory of the State from Hobbes to Smith (Princeton).