Review of Glory Liu's Adam Smith's America (opens in new tab)

My review of Glory Liu's Adam Smith's America. The book is a valuable history of the many American reinventions of Smith, from the Founding era to the Chicago School. But, as I argue in my review, the central problem is not simply that Smith was read selectively, or that his moral philosophy was ignored. The deeper issue is that Smith belonged to the classical surplus tradition, concerned with production, distribution, accumulation, and conflict, while modern interpreters often read him throu...