Adam Smith in His Time and Ours: Designing the Decent Society

In recent years Adam Smith has been championed by advocates of the market economy. This book analyzes Smith's economic and political thought, and concludes that far from subscribing to unregulated self-interest, Smith believed the market should operate in tandem with socially improving institutions. Muller shows how the "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" was as much as anything a warning against the threat posed to the common good by organized mercantile interest. Smith was interested not just in how wealth was created, but how it could be used to build a decent society. It is this aspect of his thought, argues Muller, which has been ignored by those who use his writings to further their own ideological interests.