Adam Smith’s America

Glory M. Liu is assistant director of the Center for Economy and Society and assistant research professor at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, The Nation, and other publications.

"Adam Smith’s America offers a rich and nuanced exploration of how one of the most influential thinkers in economic history has been understood and misunderstood in American political and intellectual discourse. Liu’s work serves as a valuable corrective to oversimplified narratives about Smith’s legacy, demonstrating how his complex ideas have been selectively interpreted and reinterpreted to serve various ideological ends. By tracing the evolution of Smith’s reception in America, Liu not only illuminates the changing nature of American economic and political thought but also invites readers to engage more deeply with Smith’s actual writings."---Filippo Gaddo, Society of Professional Economists ​​​​​​​ --- "Liu succeeds in illustrating how multifaceted interpretations of Smith have been and how important he remains as the prism through which we understand the relationship of the economy, the individual, and the state. Liu thus tells the story of how a Scottish moral philosopher became an icon of American capitalism with style and intellectual vigour."---Zack Rauwald, Tocqueville21 --- "A detailed and well-researched account of the reception of Adam Smith in America."---Maria Pia Paganelli, History of Economic Thought and Policy --- "Outstanding work."---Matteo Santarelli, Journal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas --- "

Maybe it’s a moonshot to imagine lanyard-festooned Seattleite techies as a revolutionary vanguard, but, whatever your political visions: There’s a Smith for that.

"---Adam Willems, The Stranger --- "

Lucid and compelling. . . . Adam Smith’s America is an impressively researched and deftly executed book.

"---Robin Douglass, Global Intellectual History --- "Fascinating."---Greg Olear, PREVAIL --- "Masterful."---David Bahnsen, Religion & Liberty Online --- "

The iconic economist has become all things to all people over time, from Friedman-esque libertarian to anti-capitalist crusader. . . . Even if Chicago, the Heritage Foundation, and other right-leaning entities have tried to seize him for their cause, Liu examines the possibility that he may be ‘closer to the values of the contemporary left’—thus are the many ambiguities in his work. A bracing study not just of Smith’s ideas, but also of how scholars and activists have used (and misused) them.

" --- "[A] provocative analysis of Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith’s influence on U.S. politics and business. . . . This is a rewarding reconsideration of an influential thinker." --- "Exemplary. . . . Liu presents Smith’s reception history as a unique window into what she calls the nation’s ‘politics of political economy.’ She is right. . . . Liu demonstrates just how malleable ideologically the interpretation of Smith has been over time."---Jonathan Levy, Boston Review --- "

[Adam Smith’s America] illuminates how the ways that readers approach a text become part of that text’s story. . . . A model for doing reception history well.

"---Rebecca Brenner Graham, Slate --- "This is an excellent book."---Branko Milanovic, Global Inequality and More 3.0 --- "A fascinating tour of American economic theory and debate from the late 18th century to the present. . . . Liu’s book is more than an examination of the twists and turns in American economic debate, for it also raises profound questions about economics as a discipline and terrain of debate."---Colin Kidd, New Statesman --- "How did Adam Smith become as American as apple pie? Wisely skipping over the ‘mesmerizingly mundane’ life of the man, about whom we know little, Glory Liu offers a biography of Adam Smith the idea. Traversing three centuries of American thought in fluid prose, Ms. Liu finds traces of Smith in his inspiration of the founding generation, as grist for 19th-century debates over free trade, and as a celebrated apostle of the free market during the Cold War. Synthesizing a wave of recent scholarship on Smith, Ms. Liu elevates his Theory of Moral Sentiments over his canonical Wealth of Nations."---Jennifer Burns, Wall Street Journal (Five Best Biographies of Economists) --- "Intriguing. . . . Capacious. . . . Rich."---Kim Phillips-Fein, New Republic --- "Winner of the Best Monograph Award, European Society for the History of Economic Thought" --- "Winner of the Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities, American Philosophical Society" --- "Winner of the PROSE Award in Economics, Association of American Publishers"