250 Years of The Wealth of Nations: The Book That Invented Development Economics (opens in new tab)

Two hundred and fifty years ago, in 1776, Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Few books have shaped the intellectual architecture of the modern world as deeply as this one. Economists still cite it, historians still debate it, politicians still invoke it—often without reading it. Yet the true significance of Smith’s work is not captured by the caricatures that surround it.