Podcast: Freakonomics Radio
Episode: Was Adam Smith Really a Right-Winger? | Freakonomics Radio | Episode 526
Here’s a list of all the books mentioned in this episode, complete with an Amazon buy link and quotes from the episode.
The Wealth of Nations
Buy on Amazon"It has been said that Thatcher carried a copy of The Wealth of Nations in her handbag."
The Wealth of Nations
Buy on Amazon"Here was the big question: would Britain be, as Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations, a nation of shopkeepers or a nation of government bureaucrats?"
The Wealth of Nations
Buy on Amazon"In Book Five of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith would appear to support this: "For a very small expense, the public can facilitate, can encourage, and can even impose upon almost the whole body of the people the necessity of acquiring those essential parts of education."
The Wealth of Nations
Buy on Amazon"Yes, because The Wealth of Nations is an enormous, sprawling book \u2014elephantine\u2014and it's filled with facts, figures, and arguments, some of them not entirely consistent."
The Wealth of Nations
Buy on Amazon"Do you really think he would publish The Wealth of Nations after dedicating so many years to it with an incomplete understanding of the government's role in providing services like education and transportation?"
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"If you read both of Adam Smith's major works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations, you might conclude that there is not just one Adam Smith but two."
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"Glory Liu discusses this theory, which posits that Smith changed his mind or had a change of heart between writing The Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759 and The Wealth of Nations in 1776."
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"The concepts of sympathy in The Theory of Moral Sentiments and self-interest in The Wealth of Nations are perfectly compatible."
The Wealth of Nations
Buy on Amazon"I think the real Adam Smith Problem is that most economists and politicians who refer to The Wealth of Nations for guidance have simply not read The Theory of Moral Sentiments."
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"My book attempts to reintroduce modern readers to Adam Smith's overlooked masterpiece, The Theory of Moral Sentiments."
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"There’s one passage from The Theory of Moral Sentiments that Roberts emphasizes heavily in his book."
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"If you're going to read just one paragraph from this work, this might be the one: Man naturally desires not only to be loved but also to be lovely or to be the proper object of love; He naturally dreads not only to be hated but also to be hateful or to be the proper object of hatred; He desires not just praise but praiseworthiness or to be that which, though it should be praised by no one, is still the natural and proper object of praise; He fears not only being blamed but also blameworthiness or to be that which, though it should be blamed by nobody, is nonetheless still the natural and proper object of blame."
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"After reading The Theory of Moral Sentiments and pondering its content, did your economist colleagues think you had softened?"
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"Thus, I want to know how the act of reading The Theory of Moral Sentiments affected you."
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"Yet, reading The Theory of Moral Sentiments made me realize that many other influences affect us."
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"Throughout these recent episodes, we have likewise been reevaluating Adam Smith, hoping that it too will yield benefits."
The Wealth of Nations
Buy on Amazon"As Dennis Rasmussen explained, reconciling The Wealth of Nations with The Theory of Moral Sentiments isn’t particularly difficult."
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Buy on Amazon"I think the real Adam Smith Problem is that most economists and politicians who refer to The Wealth of Nations for guidance have simply not read The Theory of Moral Sentiments."