[lbo-talk] Reading Adam Smith

[michael perelman]

Adam Smith is a brilliant writer, who began as a professor of rhetoric.  
The first part of his book is an exercise in ideological purity. In the 
later parts, he contradicts much of this extreme ideology.

 

In the Invisible Handcuffs, I show how Smith's famous pin factory story 
was a mix of plagiarism and deception.

In contrast to his Theory Of Moral Sentiments, the Wealth Of Nations was 
not particularly popular until the French Revolution, when the defenders 
of the status quo recognized the ideological value of the work, or 
presumably assuming that no one would read much past the first few chapters.

After the Revolutions of 1848, the age of Classical Political Economy 
ended. Economists became much more careful in allowing realism to seep 
into their works. Consequently, they became far more sterile.

-- 

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901
www.michaelperelman.wordpress.com