About this book
Life of Adam Smith by John Rae opens a vivid window onto the life and ideas of the man who shaped modern economics. Rae’s biography blends meticulous archival research with a readable narrative, tracing Smith’s journey from his Kirkcaldy childhood and Glasgow lectures to his role at the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment. Straddling biography and political economy, this book situates Smith’s major works—The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations—within their intellectual and historical context, illuminating how moral philosophy, commerce, and reform converged in eighteenth‑century Britain.
Rae supplements Dugald Stewart’s memoir with newly discovered letters and college records, drawing on Glasgow and Edinburgh archives and correspondence with contemporaries such as Hume. The result is a richly textured portrait that explains Smith’s ideas without reducing them to abstract theory, showing how public life, patronage, and scholarly networks shaped the development of classical economics.
Ideal for students of economics, historians of the Enlightenment, and readers who want a substantive, well‑researched life of Adam Smith, this biography offers both authoritative scholarship and accessible storytelling—an essential listen for anyone curious about the origins of political economy and the man behind its enduring principles.
