ADAM SMITH’S ENLIGHTENED WORLD

Commerce, morality, equality, the rule of law, and the role of government… Welcome to the world of Adam Smith.

What can we learn about our own world from Smith? Join the workers in an 18th century pin factory to find out more…

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Latest

Adam Smith’s Book on Jurisprudence: An Appreciation of The Wealth of Nations

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations .  The Wealth of Nations was literally world-changing.  It was one of the first systematic explorations of what we now call economics, and the breadth of the work is global.

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Spending, Taxing, and Debt

In this, our ninth episode, Mike Munger walks us through Book Five of The Wealth of Nations to map a state that defends, adjudicates, and builds wisely, then pays for it without killing growth. From militias to standing armies, fee-based courts to salaried judges, turnpikes to basic schooling, and taxes to debt, we test what holds up now.

Multimedia Resources

An Animal That Trades

A five-part short video series on the life and contemporary relevance of Adam Smith.

#WealthofTweets by Sarah Skwire and Janet Bufton

Commentary

Equality, Wealth, and Power and the Need for Civil Government in Adam Smith, Part 1

November 4, 2025 How can political equality last in a world of economic inequality? Adam Smith's answer rests on analytical egalitarianism, where institutional design ensures competition, justice, and broad participation in governance. Jimena Hurtado explains in this two-part series. 

Andrzej Frycz Modzrewski’s Proposals for Public Education Reform in On Improving the Republic

January 21, 2026 Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski’s ideas about education reform are quite similar to those presented by later classical liberal thinkers, particularly Adam Smith. These similarities shed light on deeper connections between republican and classical liberal ideas. 

Educational Resources

AdamSmithWorks Lesson Plans

Original, classroom-ready activities to use with your students TODAY.

Invisible Hand Toolkit

Explore the most famous metaphor in economics with our collection of original resources for you and your classroom. 

Full Texts

The Theory of Moral Sentiments

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith’s first and in his own mind most important work, outlines his view of proper conduct and the institutions and sentiments that make men virtuous. He develops his doctrine of the impartial spectator, whose hypothetical disinterested judgment we use to distinguish right from wrong in any given situation. 

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

First published in 1776, the year in which the American Revolution officially began, Smith’s Wealth of Nations sparked a revolution of its own. In it Smith analyzes the major elements of political economy, from market pricing and the division of labor to monetary, tax, trade, and other government policies that affect economic behavior. Throughout he offers seminal arguments for free trade, free markets, and limited government.