The Other Adam Smith - by Mike Hill & Warren Montag (Paperback)

About the Book

An account of Adam Smith that explores how his minor and major writings together constitute a comprehensive--if highly contestable--system of thought, this book looks at Smith's writing on knowledge, affect, sociability and government, and political economy in order to challenge both the old view of Smith as a narrow market fundamentalist and the new orthodoxy that casts him as a champion of self-restraint and the architect of humanized markets.

Book Synopsis

The Other Adam Smith represents the next wave of critical thinking about the still under-examined work of this paradigmatic Enlightenment thinker. Not simply another book about Adam Smith, it allows and even necessitates his inclusion in the realm of theory in the broadest sense. Moving beyond his usual economic and moral philosophical texts, Mike Hill and Warren Montag take seriously Smith's entire corpus, his writing on knowledge, affect, sociability and government, and political economy, as constituting a comprehensive--though highly contestable--system of thought. We meet not just Smith the economist, but Smith the philosopher, Smith the literary critic, Smith the historian, and Smith the anthropologist. Placed in relation to key thinkers such as Hume, Lord Kames, Fielding, Hayek, Von Mises, and Agamben, this other Adam Smith, far from being localized in the history of eighteenth-century economic thought or ideas, stands at the center of the most vibrant and contentious debates of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Review Quotes

"The Other Adam Smith is a wide-ranging, subtle, and daring book...Anyone interested in Smith or in the intertwining of eighteenth-century philosophy and its historical moment should read this book. So should those interested in the uses and abuses of Smith that are bound to continue in the wake of the so-called populist elections in the United States and abroad."--Steve Newman, Eighteenth Century Studies

"Dispensing with ideological and impartial interpretations, this book offers the first reading of Adam Smith's entire corpus. Reconstructing his work from every aspect and positioning it within the economic, philosophical, and anthropological debates of his time, it offers a radical interrogation of Smith in light of today's most pressing questions and theoretical discussions."--Roberto Esposito, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

"Hill and Montag's premise is that Adam Smith is a classic thinker in the best sense: No amount of rumination about his writings can exhaust their relevance. As their book demonstrates, no matter what happens in our capitalist world, we can be edified by returning to Smith's texts. Like Smith's writings, this excellent monograph will endure."--Michael J. Shapiro, University of Hawaii, Manoa

"This book is a welcome addition to Smith scholarship. It is a highly interdisciplinary and contextualized reading of Smith's works, contexts, and legacy."--Brian Glenney, Scottish Philosophy

"Mike Hill and Warren Montag argue, convincingly to my mind, that Adam Smith was a major thinker across a vast range of fields. In turn, they suggest not just the other Adam Smith but multiple others . . . Hill and Montag move us beyond interesting but limited binary debates to show that the, apparently, marginal focus on cruelty in Smith's work, has helped justify a political-economy of neo-liberal necro-economics . . . [A] rewarding book."--Derek Wall, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books

"Mike Hill and Warren Montag's revelatory The Other Adam Smith reveals just how important Smith is to [the] debates on sovereignty and life . . . Hill and Montag's brilliant book challenges the reader to think about Adam Smith in new ways and for new purposes."--Daniel O'Quinn, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

"This challenging, cogent study is the first serious overview of the career of Adam Smith (1723-90) . . . The authors' literary approach is refreshing: it is grounded in philosophy, history, and economics, disciplines that provide them with fascinating theoretical tools for reading Smith from a variety of perspectives."--D.A. Robinson, CHOICE

"This outstanding interdisciplinary achievement spans English literature, social theory, history of philosophy, history of the book, social theory, and political history in what is a socially important and largely original re-evaluation of the argument for a market society and Liberal political economy more generally."--Eric Schliesser, Ghent University

About the Author

Mike Hill is Associate Professor of English at the University at Albany, SUNY. Warren Montag is Professor of English at Occidental College.