“In a well-written and consistently interesting study, Jonathan Conlin shows how Adam Smith, key thinker in the development of economics, is directly relevant not only for the late 18th century but also for today. . . . A valuable, interesting and well-written book. Conlin deserves congratulations.”

BBC History

"Conlin’s Adam Smith in under two hundred pages provides a guide for readers who do not have the time to plumb the depths of Smithology and brings Smith to life by showing how he came to think the way he did by taking cues from the world he lived in. . . . Conlin has been teaching Smith at universities in the United Kingdom and France and his exposure to questions raised by twenty-somethings shines through.Conlin encourages reading Smith not as a monument on display but as a manual encouraging readers to look at the world we have before our eyes and use our mind to draw our own conclusions."

Journal of the Adam Smith Institute

"Presents an introduction to the thought of Adam Smith, integrating his life with such key Smithian concepts as sympathy and the passions, the historical account of the development of society, and moral philosophy."

Journal of Economic Literature

"Conlin has taken it upon himself to reconstruct an integrated analysis of Smith’s vision of humankind’s invisible connecting principles for undergraduates, as well as for any thoughtful reader who is interested in Adam Smith’s work. In his contribution to the Critical Lives series, Conlin does a very admirable job of this in a small space."

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