New Handbook on Adam Smith Published

When the definitive, six-volume “Glasgow Edition of Adam Smith of the WORKS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF ADAM SMITH” appeared from Oxford University Press to mark the two hundredth anniversary of the Wealth Of Nations in 1976, with subsequent publications of his less well known Works through to 1983 Smithian scholarship received a major boost. Companion volumes, “Essays on Adam Smith”, 1975, edited by Andrew S. Skinner and Thomas Wilson, and The Life of Adam Smith by Ian S. Ross, 1995, promoted deeper interest in Adam Smith’s scholarly contributions, which grew considerably after 1983.

The beginnings of a spate of books, research papers and scholarship soon became evident, and not just among economists. It takes time for new and even old ideas to take hold. For instance many economists often quote him, or rather attribute their versions of his ideas to him, fairly regularly and as regularly clearly have not yet read any of his works, including Wealth Of Nations. 

Nevertheless, that spate of interest in Adam Smith has widened and continues today in full flood, firmly establishing Adam Smith scholarship in the Academy, and not just among economists, but also among philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, political studies, English language and linguistics scholars, and among the Natural Sciences, including mathematics and physics. 

Smith was never a single-subject scholar. 

He was also a moral philosopher, an historian of science and human societies, a scholar in jurisprudence (for which he was awarded a LL.D by Glasgow University in 1764), a rhetorician and a grammarian, and participated regularly in discussions with several leading figures at Panmure House, Edinburgh, 1778-90, and in the societies, formal and informal, whose wider influence on European thinking across many fields is now known as the Scottish Enlightenment.

A new study of Adam Smith’s scholarship, reflecting recent research by 28 new and longstanding scholars across the whole spectrum of Smith’s interests, has just appeared from Oxford University Press.

Three well-respected Smithian scholars, Christopher J. Berry, Maria Pia Paganelli, and Craig Smith (two of whom are from Glasgow University), edited the 28 contributions, and contributed their own essays.  It promises to be an authoritative account of recent work on Adam Smith and will be widely referred to in the coming decades.

THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF ADAM SMITH, Edited by Christopher J. Berry, Maria Pia Paganelli, and Craig Smith. Oxford University Press. Oxford Handbooks in Economics 656 pages ISBN978-0-19-960506-4 Hardback Published: 16 May 2013 Price:  £95.00

“Adam Smith (1721-90) is a thinker with a distinctive perspective on human behaviour and social institutions. He is best known as the author of the An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Yet his work is name-checked more often than it is read and then typically it is of an uninformed nature; that he is an apologist for capitalism, a forceful promoter of self-interest, a defender of greed and a critic of any 'interference' in market transactions. To offset this caricature, this Handbook provides an informed portrait. Drawing on the expertise of leading Smith scholars from around the world, it reflects the depth and breadth of Smith's intellectual interests. After an introductory outline chapter on Smith's life and times, the volume comprises 28 new essays divided into seven parts. Five sections are devoted to particular themes in Smith's corpus - his views on Language, Art and Culture; his Moral Philosophy; his Economic thought, his discussions of History and Politics and his analyses of Social Relations. These five parts are framed by one that focuses on the immediate and proximate sources of his thought and the final one that recognizes Smith's status as a thinker of world-historical significance - indicating both his posthumous impact and influence and his contemporary resonance. While each chapter is a discrete contribution to scholarship, the Handbook comprises a composite whole to enable the full range of Smith's work to be appreciated.” 

Contributors:

Michael C. Amrozowicz, The State University of New York at Albany

Tony Aspromourgos, University of Sydney

Christopher J. Berry, University of Glasgow

Richard Boyd, Georgetown University

Tom Campbell, Australian National University

James Chandler, University of Chicago

Christel Fricke, Heidelberg University

Samuel Fleischacker, University of Illinois-Chicago

Ryan Patrick Hanley, Marquette University

Maureen Harkin, Reed College

Eugene Heath, State University of New York

Duncan Kelly, University of Cambridge

Gavin Kennedy, Heriot-Watt University

Catherine Labio, University of Colorado at Boulder

David M. Levy, George Mason University

Leonidas Montes, University of Cambridge

Nerio Naldi, University of Rome 'La Sapienza'

Spencer J. Pack, Connecticut College

Maria Pia Paganelli, Trinity University

Nicholas Phillipson, Edinburgh University

Sandra J. Peart, University of Richmond

Dennis C. Rasmussen, Tufts University

Hugh Rockoff, Rutgers University

Amartya Sen, Harvard University

Fabrizio Simon, University of Palermo

Craig Smith, The University of St Andrews (since October 2013, Glasgow University)

C. Jan Swearingen, Texas A&M University

Spiros Tegos, The University of Crete

Edwin van de Haar, Ateneo de Manila University

Contents

Preface
Introduction
Christopher J. Berry: Adam Smith: Outline of Life, Times, and Legacy 
:        

Part One  Adam Smith: Heritage and Contemporaries
1: Nicholas Phillipson: Adam Smith: A Biographer's Reflections 
2: Leonidas Montes: Newtonianism and Adam Smith
 3: Dennis C. Rasmussen: Adam Smith and Rousseau: Enlightenment and counter-Enlightenment  
4: Christopher J. Berry: Adam Smith and Early Modern Thought
 Part Two: Adam Smith on Language, Art and Culture
5:  Catherine Labio: Adam Smith's Aesthetics
 6: James Chandler: Adam Smith as Critic 
7: Michael C. Amrozowicz: Adam Smith: History and Poetics
 8: C. Jan Swearingen: Adam Smith on Language and Rhetoric: The Ethics of Style, Character, and Propriety
 Part Three: Adam Smith and Moral Philosophy 
9: Christel Fricke: Adam Smith: The Sympathetic Process and the Origin and Function of Conscience
10: Duncan Kelly: Adam Smith and the Limits of Sympathy
 11: Ryan Patrick Hanley: Adam Smith and Virtue
 12: Eugene Heath: Adam Smith and Self-Interest
 Part Four: Adam Smith and Economics 
13: Tony Aspromourgos: Adam Smith on Labour and Capital
 14: Nerio Naldi: Adam Smith on Value and Prices 
15: Hugh Rockoff: Adam Smith on Money, Banking, and the Price Level
1 6: Maria Pia Paganelli: Commercial Relations: from Adam Smith to Field Experiments
 Part Five: Adam Smith on History and Politics 
17: Spiros Tegos: Adam Smith: Theorist of Corruption
 18: David M. Levy & Sandra J. Peart: Adam Smith and the State: Language and Reform
 19: Fabrizio Simon: Adam Smith and the Law 
20: Edwin van de Haar: Adam Smith on Empire and International Relations
 Part Six: Adam Smith on Social Relations 
21: Richard Boyd: Adam Smith, Civility, and Civil Society 
22: Gavin Kennedy: Adam Smith on Religion
 23: Samuel Fleischacker: Adam Smith and Equality 
24: Maureen Harkin: Adam Smith and Women
 Part Seven; Adam Smith: Legacy and Influence
 25: Spencer J. Pack: Adam Smith and Marx 
26: Craig Smith: Adam Smith and the New Right 
27: Tom Campbell: Adam Smith: Methods, Morals and Markets
 28: Amartya Sen: The Contemporary Relevance of Adam Smith.