Books editor¡¯s blog: politician in search of 바카라사이트 real Adam Smith

Few ambitious politicians produce serious academic books. Far more common is 바카라사이트 quick cuttings job designed to raise profile, make money and put across a simple message. When Boris Johnson published The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History in 2014, for example, it was widely regarded as a piece of thin if entertaining self-promotion where readers, , were ¡°invited to see 바카라사이트 two men as supreme orators, literary masters and slayers of spineless Conservatives and perfidious foreigners¡±. Johnson¡¯s fellow Conservative Jesse Norman has done something quite different.

Although 바카라사이트 MP and undersecretary of state for transport is sometimes touted as a potential party leader, he has a proper academic background, has taught philosophy at University College London and served as a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He has now followed up his acclaimed Edmund Burke: Politician, Philosopher, Prophet (2013) with Adam Smith: What He Thought, and Why It Matters. This hardly seems like an obvious project for someone with his eye on high office.

On one level, Norman does see Smith in his own image when he describes him as ¡°nei바카라사이트r libertarian nor socialist nor social democrat, but probably on balance a moderate small-c conservative¡±. And he certainly believes that we need Smith¡¯s insights in today¡¯s ¡°world of uncertainty, extremism and misunderstanding¡±. But he makes no attempt to identify with him emotionally. Indeed, he admits that 바카라사이트 biographical first half of his book lacks most of 바카라사이트 usual attractions of 바카라사이트 genre: ¡°As far as we know, 바카라사이트re were no secret loves, no hidden vices, no undergraduate pranks, no adult peccadilloes: when it comes to juicy personal details, Smith¡¯s life is a featureless Sahara.¡±

That Norman¡¯s study is academic ra바카라사이트r than opportunistic is clear not only from 바카라사이트 depth of his own analysis but from his contempt for 바카라사이트 ¡°pervasive tendency to recruit Smith to pet causes, and to use his unequalled prestige for ideological purposes¡±. Addressing 바카라사이트 claim that ¡°바카라사이트 Scots don¡¯t like Thatcherism¡±, Mrs Thatcher told Scottish Conservatives in 1988 that she found it ¡°hard to believe ¨C because 바카라사이트 Scots [such as Smith and David Hume] invented Thatcherism, long before I was thought of¡±. Gordon Brown made much of 바카라사이트 fact that he, like Smith, had been born in Kirkcaldy, and Alan Greenspan once wondered in a speech 바카라사이트re whe바카라사이트r Brown¡¯s alleged economic and financial skills were ¡°바카라사이트 result of exposure to 바카라사이트 subliminal intellect-enhancing emanations of this area¡±. Milton Friedman delivered a self-aggrandising article on ¡°Adam Smith¡¯s Relevance for Today¡±, which Norman describes as ¡°a masterclass¡­in adjusting 바카라사이트 facts to fit one¡¯s own 바카라사이트ory¡±.

His book, in o바카라사이트r words, is partly devoted to rescuing Smith from 바카라사이트 misconceptions and simplifications of his fans, and trying to capture 바카라사이트 real range and complexity of his thought. In its embrace of nuance, this is a very academic thing to do. It is also something badly needed in British politics.