Speaking of Smith Archives

FDR versus Liberalism: Quotations from David Green, 1987

June 3, 2021

In this post, economist Daniel B. Klein unpacks the relationship between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the meaning of the word "liberalism," drawing on David Green's 1987 book, The Language of Politics in America: Shaping Political Consciousness from McKinley to Reagan.

Adam Smith and David Hume’s Soup a la Reine

May 26, 2021

Learn how to make a version of the soup that some say David Hume helped to re-popularize in late-eighteenth-century Scotland.

Adam Smith in the Narrow Corridor

May 23, 2021

Adam Smith understood that freedom is not the natural order of things. Do we?

Adam Smith's Lost Loves

May 19, 2021

Did Adam Smith know what it was like to be in love? Here's a law professor's primer on the evidence.

From the Archive: Smith on Liberty

May 12, 2021

The Amagi, Liberty Fund's logo, is the earliest known symbol for liberty.

In this post, section editor Shanon FitzGerald rounds up some of the top “Speaking of Smith” essays on Adam Smith and the idea of liberty.

Smith and Marx: Vision and Analysis

May 9, 2021

Karl Marx did work from analytic foundations bequeathed to posterity by Adam Smith, but the two social theorists' visions could hardly be more distinct.

What Adam Smith Ate: Toulouse Cassoulet

May 5, 2021

Learn about a classic dish of the Toulouse region, cassoulet, and get the recipe to try to make it yourself!

Smith on Rousseau

May 3, 2021

In this video, Daniel B. Klein speaks about the historical and intellectual relationship between Adam Smith and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Smithian Patriotism: A Tale of Two Professor Smiths

April 28, 2021

There is much for the modern day Smithian to consider in Professor Steven B. Smith's new book, Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes.

Adam Smith and Military Intervention

April 25, 2021

In Smith’s mind, military interventions should always be exceptions: never a duty, and almost never a right.

What Adam Smith Ate: The Hop Supper

April 21, 2021

Learn about the traditional European hop-harvest festival, with its accompanying "hop supper," and get the recipe for beer-braised pork loin roast!

The Division of Labor: Early Examples in China and India

April 18, 2021

How does the story of the spindle wheel fit with what Adam Smith says about the rise of the division of labor? Amy Willis, drawing from Virginia Postrel's new book The Fabric of Civilization, zeroes in on the central role of decentralized innovation.