"Business is a necessary evil that the moral leaders of mankind have tolerated  but never condoned. At no time did they view with favor the pursuit of material  gain. The Old Testament prophets proclaimed against the rapacity of the rich.  Jesus scorned the money lenders. Luther had no kind words to say to the  wealthy, nor did Calvin indulge the new bourgeoisie." Thus begins this fi rst  book-length study of social philosopher and political economist Adam Smith's  The Wealth of Nations.  Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish-born thinker who served as both  professor of logic and professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow University.  While the publication of his philosophic treatise The Theory of Moral Sentiments  at age thirty-six gave Smith fame, The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776,  has established his lasting reputation. Recognized in its own day as an  important and compassionate examination of economics, the book was praised  by Thomas Jefferson for its contribution to the fi eld of economics. Smith wrote  The Wealth of Nations for several reasons: he was disgusted with the business  methods practiced by merchants and manufacturers, and he was concerned  with improving the well-being of society.  Refl ecting his own concerns about the contribution economics could make  to the betterment of society, Eli Ginzberg published this study of Smith's  humanitarian views on commerce, industrialism, and labor. Written for his  doctoral degree at Columbia University, and originally published as The House  of Adam Smith, the book is divided into two parts. The fi rst part reconstructs  and interprets Smith's classic The Wealth of Nations, while the second part  examines Smith as the patron saint and prophet of the successes of nineteenthcentury capitalism.  Adam Smith and the Founding of Market Economics is a fascinating study,  and contributes signifi cantly to our understanding of capitalism, free trade, the division of management and labor, and the history of world economics in the  nineteenth century. Its republication, with a new introduction by the author,  will be valued by economists, political historians, students of philosophy, and  policymakers.

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