Today, June 5, we celebrate the 283rd Birthday of Adam Smith, born in
Kirkcaldy (pronounced
kir-kawdy), Scotland, about 10 miles north of Edinburgh across the Firth
of Forth.
Actually, the precise date of his birth is unrecorded and unknown, but
we do know that he was baptized on June 5, so that has become his "received" birthday,
as it were.
You may celebrate—or not, but that would be a grievous oversight—in your own way, but I choose today to remark upon the publication of a new book about his life and thoughts, reviewed in The Telegraph. (Yes, for those of you who’ve followed or will follow the links, the name of the book is different in the UK than the US; and if anyone from the publishing industry can tell me why "Adam Smith and the Pursuit of Perfect Liberty" is preferred across the pond to "The Authentic Adam Smith: His Life & Times" on this side, I’d be fascinated to hear from you. Being completely promiscuous when it comes to all things Adam Smith, I’d buy the book were it titled, "What Adam Smith’s Dog Had for Breakfast," but I digress.)
Amazon has this to say:
"The Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) has been adopted by neoconservatives as the ideological father of unregulated business and small government. Politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan promoted Smith’s famous 1776 book, An
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, as the bible of laissez-
faire economics. In this vigorous, crisp, and accessible book, James Buchan refutes much of what modern politicians and economists claim about Adam Smith and shows that, in fact, Smith transcends modern political categories."
Although I might not have put it in such a Manichean fashion (neoconservative = Thatcher/Reagan = unregulated business = laissez-faire), the publicist has a point, and it’s the key insight into Adam Smith’s thinking that I’ve always subscribed to: He does, indeed, "transcend" categorization.
The Telegraph review makes the same point far more nicely:
"James Buchan’s short, sharp biography makes a powerful case for thinking that, for Smith, these divisions [in his own thinking] were creatively enabling rather than self-canceling: they were what gave his writing its characteristic sense of balance and poise."
By and large, the Telegraph is laudatory, which is altogether fitting and proper for this June 5, 2006.
I leave you, gentle reader, with these two observations on this site’s progenitor: The reviewer describes Adam Smith’s style as "modest, generous and urbane, with the occasional hint of wistfulness or acid,” and sums up the book as "the perfect celebration of a man who did so much
to alter modern economic thinking, and claimed towards the end of his life: “I meant to have done more.” "
Happy Birthday.
Although nobody knows exactly when he was born, his birth was registered on 5 June 1723, so assuming he was registered a couple of days after the birth, today would be his 283rd birthday !
Shortly before adam smith was born, his father died, leaving just the mother raise him, but throughout Smith’s life, he remained committed to his widowed mother, and never married.
At around the age of four, he was kidnapped by a band of Gypsies, however he was quickly rescued by his uncle and returned to his mother – other than this, Smith’s early life was rather normal!
By fourteen, he was studying moral philosophy and mathematics at the University of Glasgow, where he developed a strong passion for liberty, reason and free speech. In 1740, he won a scholarship to go to Oxford, however Smith thought the university quite worthless, and he returned to Glasgow in 1746 to become a teacher.
Whilst in Scotland he managed to establish a reputation for himself by writing The Theory of Moral Sentiments, this led to the young Duke of Buccleugh hiring Smith as a tutor to go on the Grand Tour of Europe with him.
Visiting Europe was a perfect opportunity for Smith to collect information about different economies and manners, which he later compiled in his magnum opus, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
adam smith wealth of nations was a pioneering book on free trade and market economics. His ideas laid the foundation for the free market economies of the 21st Century, and although conceived over 300 years ago, Adam Smith’s ideas are as significant and relevant today as ever.
I have what I (IMHO) think is a better copy of “The Wealth of nations” on my website. I took it from the Project Gutenberg website and HTMLized it to the best of my ability.
Any corrections are gratefully accepted.