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5 min readAdam Smith’s Wealth of Nations is often treated as a sacred text of free-market capitalism, but the episode argues that this reputation is a selective, modern invention. The real Adam Smith was a far more complex and humane thinker than the mascot created by 20th-century economists.
The episode opens with Eamon Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute in London, who argues that Smith would view today’s high-tax UK economy as “one of the most tyrannical systems that he’d ever discovered.” This sets up the central tension: Smith is claimed by the political right as a champion of small government and deregulation, but a closer reading of his work reveals a thinker deeply concerned with inequality, the corruption of the rich, and the need for public goods.
The Chicago School’s Selective Smith
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:00) **The Puzzle: How Adam Smith Became a Right-Wing Icon** - The episode opens by asking what Adam Smith would think of the modern UK economy.
- 2 (04:28) **Smith’s First Book: The Theory of Moral Sentiments** - Smith’s early career and his first major work, which emphasized human sympathy and moral virtue.
- 3 (06:07) **The Long Road to The Wealth of Nations** - Smith’s European travels and the 17-year gap before his second book.
- 4 (07:14) **The Wealth of Nations as a Political Polemic** - The book’s target audience and its core argument.
- 5 (10:35) **Smith in Early America: A Blueprint, Not a Bible** - How the American founders used Smith’s work.
- 6 (12:58) **The Fight for Smith’s Authority in 19th-Century Politics** - How Smith became a wedge issue in tariff debates.
- 7 (14:42) **The Chicago School Remakes Smith** - How the University of Chicago transformed Smith’s reputation into a conservative/libertarian one.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Economists and politicians have turned him into a mascot for free-market ideology. Some on the left say the right has badly misread him. In this updated replay of a 2022 episode, we hold a very Smithy tug of war.
- SOURCES:
- Eamonn Butler, co-founder and director of the Adam Smith Institute.
- Glory Liu, a political scientist and Adam Smith scholar at Georgetown University.
- Mariana Mazzucato, professor in the economics of innovation and public value at University College London.
- Dennis Rasmussen, a professor of political science at Syracuse University.
- Russ Roberts, president of Shalem College in in Jerusalem; host of the EconTalk podcast; and author.
- Craig Smith, Adam Smith Senior Lecturer in the Scottish Enlightenment at the University of Glasgow.
- RESOURCES:
- Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism, by Gloria Liu (2022).
- "Henry and Adam: A Deep and Special Friendship," by Benny Higgins (Adam Smith Panmure House Perspective, 2020).
- "Rescuing Adam Smith From Myth and Misrepresentation," (The Economist, 2018).
- The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought, by Dennis C. Rasmussen (2017).
- How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness, by Russ Roberts (2014).
- "British Privatization — Taking Capitalism to the People," by John Moore (Harvard Business Review, 1992).
- Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, by Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman (1990)
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