Fortunately, Palgrave has published an English version of the superb Adam Smith: La découverte du capitalisme et de ses limites (ÉditionsDu Seuil, 2019), by Daniel Diatkine. I say “fortunately” because the English edition opens to many readers and Smith enthusiasts a provocative account of Smith's magnum opus, not entirely devoted to (but not omissive of) analytical economic issues, critical of the several naive approaches to Smith as the father of economic liberalism, and concentrated on Smith's criticism of the mercantile system. Besides, and as Diatkine states from the beginning, his account distinguishes three dimensions of capitalism: a political dimension (and here is meant the “mercantile system”), an economic dimension that situates capitalism as the “advanced state of society,” and a historical dimension. The well-known distinction between the four “ages” (the age of hunters, etc.) is included in the historical dimension, which concerns human evolution and its economic stages, property relations...
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Book Review|
April 01 2023
Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations: The Discovery of Capitalism and Its Limits
Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations: The Discovery of Capitalism and Its Limits
. By Daniel Diatkine. Cham
: Palgrave Macmillan
, 2021
. xix; 258
pp. $139.99.History of Political Economy (2023) 55 (2): 379–383.
Citation
Mauricio C. Coutinho; Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations: The Discovery of Capitalism and Its Limits. History of Political Economy 1 April 2023; 55 (2): 379–383. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-10327364
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