Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism

How did Adam Smith, an eclectic 18th-century Scottish philosopher, become known as the patron saint of free-market economics? In Adam Smith's America, Liu traces how generations of Americans, from the Founding Fathers to Chicago economists, have read, reinterpreted, and weaponized Adam Smith's ideas. She reveals how his popular image as a champion of free market fundamentalism is a historical invention, and also how Smith continues to be a vehicle for articulating perennial moral and political anxieties about capitalism today.

Glory M. Liu is a Lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard. She received her PhD in Political Science from Stanford in 2018, holds an MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History from Cambridge University, and a B.A. in Political Economy and Classics from the University of California, Berkeley. Her work has appeared in Modern Intellectual History, Aeon Magazine, and The Nation. Adam Smith's America is her first book.

The Washington History Seminar is co-chaired by Eric Arnesen (George Washington University) and is organized by the American Historical Association. It meets weekly during the academic year. The seminar thanks its anonymous individual donors and institutional partner (the George Washington University History Department) for their continued support.