Autumn Book Club Choice - Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations

My vote is for Adam Smith, if cookemonster would be so kind as to guide us through it.

cactus flower wrote:

My vote is for Adam Smith, if cookemonster would be so kind as to guide us through it.

I'm happy with either Wealth of Nations or Theory of Moral Sentiments being our Bookclub choice. They'd be proper solid reading to see us through the Autumn.

The Wealth of Nations ? Would you like to spend some time on it Ard-Taoiseach?

Would you be happy with this edition ?

http://www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Smith/smWN1.html

cactus flower wrote:

The Wealth of Nations ? Would you like to spend some time on it Ard-Taoiseach?

It's a fine volume by a fine gentleman. It's timeless logic.

I've just posted a link above your last post. Would you be happy wiith that edition? It is searchable.

cactus flower wrote:

I've just posted a link above your last post. Would you be happy wiith that edition? It is searchable.

Thanks very much for that, it'll be very good for instant reference when we get going at it.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

I've just posted a link above your last post. Would you be happy wiith that edition? It is searchable.

Thanks very much for that, it'll be very good for instant reference when we get going at it.

I'm looking forward to it too - a very important book, rooted in reality.

cactus flower wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

I've just posted a link above your last post. Would you be happy wiith that edition? It is searchable.

Thanks very much for that, it'll be very good for instant reference when we get going at it.

I'm looking forward to it too - a very important book, rooted in reality.

Yep. Adam Smith is amongst the few economic thinkers not to show his age in an appreciable way. Lots of others have fallen by the way side due to the eroding power of historical advance.

Is anyone else interested in reading The Wealth of Nations?

I could be ready to start next week - Should it still be Sunday or a weekday night?

How much reading is there in it? Would you or cookiemonster post a summary of it to get things started (or a nice youtube of Adam Smith telling us what he meant by it all ? )

cactus flower wrote:

Is anyone else interested in reading The Wealth of Nations?

I could be ready to start next week - Should it still be Sunday or a weekday night?

How much reading is there in it? Would you or cookiemonster post a summary of it to get things started (or a nice youtube of Adam Smith telling us what he meant by it all ? )

Oh I just saw this. w00t.

It's an awful big task you have got yourselves into, you know. I'll get on to writing a summary during the week and see how we get on.

cookiemonster wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Is anyone else interested in reading The Wealth of Nations?

I could be ready to start next week - Should it still be Sunday or a weekday night?

How much reading is there in it? Would you or cookiemonster post a summary of it to get things started (or a nice youtube of Adam Smith telling us what he meant by it all ? )

Oh I just saw this. w00t.

It's an awful big task you have got yourselves into, you know. I'll get on to writing a summary during the week and see how we get on.

Did you see I posted this link to the book cookiemonster? Does this version look all right to you? It should make it a lot easier for people to take part as we have an on-line text.

http://www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Smith/smWN1.html

The Wealth of Nations: The Musical

Good idea CF, I've had a quick look though it and it seems fine. As long as it's unabridged and has all five books it should be fine. But it's very long and it might be an idea to print it out as I don't imagine it would be the easiest thing to read online. Also you might want to take notes.

I have a lovely hardback version which was bought for me as a present by one of my lecturers but I seem to have lost both my study version (with notes) and my reader's guide - as you can imagine I am terribly annoyed about that!

There is a version on this Site that may be better to use. Link to Adam Smith Institute

Adam Smith? The Wealth of Nations? This is gonna be great!

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Adam Smith? The Wealth of Nations? This is gonna be great!

And the text is on-line so its Free !

http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/won-index.htm

cactus flower wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Adam Smith? The Wealth of Nations? This is gonna be great!

And the text is on-line so its Free !

http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/won-index.htm

That's a brilliant resource and it is very well organised. Adam Smith is a rock of sense whose thinking is relevant today. One of the only ways in which he dates is his failure to account for enterprise as a factor of production. He was going by the common consensus of 18th century economics that the three factors were land, labour and capital. It was only with Jean-Baptiste Say(also famous for Say's Law) that the factor enterprise was separated from capital and that is how it has been ever since.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Adam Smith? The Wealth of Nations? This is gonna be great!

And the text is on-line so its Free !

http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/won-index.htm

That's a brilliant resource and it is very well organised. Adam Smith is a rock of sense whose thinking is relevant today. One of the only ways in which he dates is his failure to account for enterprise as a factor of production. He was going by the common consensus of 18th century economics that the three factors were land, labour and capital. It was only with Jean-Baptiste Say(also famous for Say's Law) that the factor enterprise was separated from capital and that is how it has been ever since.

I'd add that his writing is very clear and compared to modern economists, refreshingly free of jargon.

cactus flower wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Adam Smith? The Wealth of Nations? This is gonna be great!

And the text is on-line so its Free !

http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/won-index.htm

That's a brilliant resource and it is very well organised. Adam Smith is a rock of sense whose thinking is relevant today. One of the only ways in which he dates is his failure to account for enterprise as a factor of production. He was going by the common consensus of 18th century economics that the three factors were land, labour and capital. It was only with Jean-Baptiste Say(also famous for Say's Law) that the factor enterprise was separated from capital and that is how it has been ever since.

I'd add that his writing is very clear and compared to modern economists, refreshingly free of jargon.

That's Adam Smith, the grandaddy of economics!

Any other takers for this ambitious reading project ? cookiemonster has offered a brief summary to get us started ? for busy people without time to read the book but who want to look at the ideas, there are good wiki entries on Smith and economic theory. This might help us to make sense of the major mayhem going on at the moment.

jaysus!!!! thats some reading there!

read it for my undergrad (i was the boring student who made it through most of the recommended reading list rather than the bare minimum!). my dad has a first edition (he bought it in a flea market when he studied economics in trinity back in the 60's). only found out we had the copy a few years ago!

zakalwe wrote:

jaysus!!!! thats some reading there!

read it for my undergrad (i was the boring student who made it through most of the recommended reading list rather than the bare minimum!). my dad has a first edition (he bought it in a flea market when he studied economics in trinity back in the 60's). only found out we had the copy a few years ago!

Ooooooh.... colour me impressed!

Can you bring it to school and show us all?

Aye, I did warn yez yer in for a heafty read. But I'll bate some classical economics into yez yet!

zakalwe wrote:

jaysus!!!! thats some reading there!

read it for my undergrad (i was the boring student who made it through most of the recommended reading list rather than the bare minimum!). my dad has a first edition (he bought it in a flea market when he studied economics in trinity back in the 60's). only found out we had the copy a few years ago!

Any help you would give us would be appreciated, no matter how dusty your copy is. First ed. must be worth a bit, as well as a wonder to behold.

Sunday nights any good for you for an on-line session ?

sadly, its minus its back cover so probably not worth all that much.

i'll try to dig out (and dust off) my notes on the book, i suspect they were used as kindling (my mum has no respect for the written word, especially when i graduated)!

if i remember correctly, it went into great detail about the pin maker!

zakalwe wrote:

sadly, its minus its back cover so probably not worth all that much.

i'll try to dig out (and dust off) my notes on the book, i suspect they were used as kindling (my mum has no respect for the written word, especially when i graduated)!

if i remember correctly, it went into great detail about the pin maker!

Yes, division of labour ! fascinating stuff ( about the only bit I've read so far )