Adam Smith, Radical and Egalitarian: An Interpretation for the 21st Century

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- A Note on Citations -- Preface: A Scotsman Looks at the World -- 1. The Life of an Absent-minded Professor -- 2. A Weak State and a Weak Church -- 3. A Non-religious Grounding of Morals: Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment -- 4. Merriment and Diversion: Smith on Public Finance and and Public Choice -- 5. The Invisible Hand and the Helping Hand -- 6. The French and American Smiths -- 7. Adam Smith Today -- Appendix -- Notes on Further Reading -- References -- Index

Iain McLean reexamines the radical legacy of AdamSmith, arguing that Smith was a radical egalitarian and that his work supported all three of the slogans of the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity. McLean suggests that Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments , published in 1759, crystallized the radically egalitarian philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment. This book brings Smith into full view, showing how much of modern economics and political science is in Smith. The author locates Smith's heritage firmly within the context of the Enlightenment, while addressing the international links between American, French, and Scottish histories of political thought.

Aims to show that Adam Smith (1723-90), the author of "The Wealth of Nations", was not the promoter of ruthless laissez-faire capitalism that is frequently depicted. Smith's "right-wing" reputation was sealed after his death when it was not safe to claim that an author may have influenced the French revolutionaries