Adam Smith and the Making of the Modern World

Adam Smith is one of the world's best known thinkers. He was the first of the three great economists - Smith, Malthus, Ricardo - who founded the discipline of modern economics. But he was much more than this. He started as a moral philosopher and in his 'Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) he laid out a convincing moral basis for human behaviour. His famous 'Wealth of Nations' is only a part of his great blueprint for how open and equal societies should work, other crucial parts are contained in his less read 'Essays on Philosophical Subjects', 'Lectures of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres' and the recently discovered 'Lectures on Jurisprudence'. By considering his life and work as one project, we can see inside a great mind which has shaped our world.