Product Description

The Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith

It is symbolic that Adam Smith’s masterpiece of economic analysis, The Wealth of Nations, was first published in 1776, the same year as the Declaration of Independence.

In his book, Smith fervently extolled the simple yet enlightened notion that individuals are fully capable of setting and regulating prices for their own goods and services. He argued passionately in favor of free trade, yet stood up for the little guy. The Wealth of Nations provided the first--and still the most eloquent--integrated description of the workings of a market economy.

The result of Smith’s efforts is a witty, highly readable work of genius filled with prescient theories that form the basis of a thriving capitalist system. This unabridged edition offers the modern reader a fresh look at a timeless and seminal work that revolutionized the way governments and individuals view the creation and dispersion of wealth--and that continues to influence our economy right up to the present day.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1751 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-04
• Released on: 2003-03-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 1264 pages

Review
"Adam Smith's enormous authority resides, in the end, in the same property that we discover in Marx: not in any ideology, but in an effort to see to the bottom of things."
--Robert L. Heilbroner


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Review
"Adam Smith's enormous authority resides, in the end, in the same property that we discover in Marx: not in any ideology, but in an effort to see to the bottom of things."
--Robert L. Heilbroner


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Inside Flap Copy
The Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith

It is symbolic that Adam Smith?s masterpiece of economic analysis, The Wealth of Nations, was first published in 1776, the same year as the Declaration of Independence.

In his book, Smith fervently extolled the simple yet enlightened notion that individuals are fully capable of setting and regulating prices for their own goods and services. He argued passionately in favor of free trade, yet stood up for the little guy. The Wealth of Nations provided the first--and still the most eloquent--integrated description of the workings of a market economy.

The result of Smith?s efforts is a witty, highly readable work of genius filled with prescient theories that form the basis of a thriving capitalist system. This unabridged edition offers the modern reader a fresh look at a timeless and seminal work that revolutionized the way governments and individuals view the creation and dispersion of wealth--and that continues to influence our economy right up to the present day.

Customer Reviews

Making Wealth, Making Poverty: A Smithian Prometheus
Conquering Scarcity: (Smith's Dialectical Relationship to Marx?)?
Adam Smith is certainly one of the greatest political philosophers in the modern tradition. Our world, as some have argued, is principally the byproduct of the system that Smith outlined in this classic work, together with a judicious mating of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. The "Wealth of Nations," though the most well known of Smith's writings, is not representative of his entire system of thought, if he has a system: Some authors insist that there is a paradox in Smith's work, when considered in light of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments"? I do not know if this is the case, but the degree to which Smith's ideas have shaped our world cannot be questioned: If it were questioned in this forum, one would only have to point to the existence of this forum to show that Smith was right; the global structure of capitalism today and its development, which has been explored by thinkers after Smith is an undeniable fact. For these reasons, Adam Smith is, in my judgement, one of the most important thinkers in modernity, and he may well have a stake in shaping an arguably post-modern world: But that is not, perhaps, the last word.

Awesome read
Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is a great read for anyone wanting to know the foundations of economics and how money works in our world. I listened to this downloadable book as an audiobook from Stratobooks.com while I commuted to and from work. I got through it in just a few days and it was less than 5 bucks.

The all time classic - worth re-reading in a changing economy
I reread (more like re-scanned) Adam Smith's famous book, The Wealth of Nations. It is a fairly aggressive book based on its size with almost 1,000 pages of fairly fine print of which half of it is dedicated to the supply and demand of corn. But it is surprisingly readable and even interesting. And it is the basic textbook of all economics.

Wealth is defined as production capability or what we might call GDP.

I figure with a changing economy, it never hurts to brush up on the basics. We are in a period of sharp changes in supply and demand. It is important for business leaders to try to understand what impact this will have on them and their companies.

One principle that Adam espouses is the division of labour.

He also talks about principals, those are the people that supply the capital that is put to use by the agents (people who apply the capital). His view is that people should not do both, they should do one or the other. It is an interesting thought.

He is very harsh on protectionism (as am I).

I am not going to recommend reading it because the size is too daunting for many people. I am suggesting thinking of the changes in our economy and how to thrive with them.