Customer Reviews

The Wealth of Nations (Everyman's Library)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I was twenty I set out to read the seminal works of a wide range of disciplines. I read Darwin, Newton, Einstein, Hobbes, Machiavelli, Plato, Aristotle, Levi-Strauss, Jung, Campbell, Freud, Frazer (abridged), Epictetus, Keynes, Adam Smith, and others I can't remember. In most cases I was disappointed. I realised that in many cases the first exposition of an idea is difficult and obscure, and that it is the later, summarising writers who collect the best and clearest explanations of profound thoughts.

The exception was Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations'. Only later did I discover that he began his amazingly varied academic career as a teacher of English prose style. It came as no surprise.

Smith's writing is a brilliant as Gibbon, but even more lucid. His insight is profound. And his marvellous style of explanation makes the reader feel like a genius. Somewhat to my astonishment, the only part of his argument that I found at all difficult was the section on international exchange, which I had to translate from terms of flow of specie to terms of exchange rates of fiat currencies. Of all that stuff I read that year, Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' was the clearest, most persuasive, and most inspiring.

It is because of Smith that the next year I took up the study of economics at the Australian National University. I came first in my class: my prize? A copy of 'The Wealth of Nations', much appreciated.