The Other Adam Smith represents the next wave of critical thinking about the still under-examined work of this paradigmatic Enlightenment thinker. Not simply another book about Adam Smith, it allows and even necessitates his inclusion in the realm of theory in the broadest sense. Moving beyond his usual economic and moral philosophical texts, Mike Hill and Warren Montag take seriously Smith's entire corpus, his writing on knowledge, affect, sociability and government, and political economy, as constituting a comprehensive-though highly contestable-system of thought. We meet not just Smith the economist, but Smith the philosopher, Smith the literary critic, Smith the historian, and Smith the anthropologist. Placed in relation to key thinkers such as Hume, Lord Kames, Fielding, Hayek, Von Mises, and Agamben, this other Adam Smith, far from being localized in the history of eighteenth-century economic thought or ideas, stands at the center of the most vibrant and contentious debates of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Industry Reviews
"This book is an outstanding achievement: it offers a genuine, interdisciplinary perspective - spanning English literature, history of philosophy, history of the book/print and novel, social theory, and political history - in order to offer a socially important and largely original re-evaluation of the argument for a market society and Liberal political economy more generally." - Eric Schliesser, Ghent University "Hill and Montag's book is based on the correct premise that Adam Smith is a classic thinker in the best sense: No amount of rumination about his writings can exhaust their relevance. As this book demonstrates, no matter what happens in our capitalist world, we can be edified by returning to Smith's texts. Like Smith's writings, this excellent monograph will endure. It's an outstanding treatise on political economy." - Michael J. Shapiro, University of Hawaii, Manoa "Dispensing with ideological and impartial interpretations, this book offer the first reading of Adam Smith's entire corpus. Reconstructing his work from every aspect and positioning it within the economic, philosophical, and anthropological debates of his time, Hill and Montag offer a radical interrogation of Smith in light of today's most pressing questions and theoretical discussions." - Roberto Esposito, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa