Author Buchan breathes new life into Adam Smith's legacy and the beginnings of modern economics. Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) has been adopted by neoconservatives as the ideological father of unregulated business and small government. Politicians such as Thatcher and Reagan promoted his famous 1776 book The Wealth of Nations as the bible of laissez-faire economics. In this accessible book, Buchan refutes much of what modern politicians and economists claim about Adam Smith and shows that, in fact, Smith transcends modern political categories. He demonstrates that The Wealth of Nations and Smith's 1759 masterpiece, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, are brilliant fragments of one of the most ambitious philosophical enterprises ever attempted: the search for a just foundation for modern commercial society both in private and in public. In an increasingly crowded and discontented world, this search is ever more urgent.--From publisher description.