Product Description

In a recreation of the epoch between the 1770s and the 1820s, Emma Rothschild reinterprets the ideas of the great revolutionary political economists to show us the true landscape of economic and political thought in their day, with important consequences for our own. Her work alters the readings of Adam Smith and Condorcet - and of ideas of enlightenment - that underlie much contemporary political thought. This text takes up late-18th-century disputes over the political economy of an enlightened, commercial society to show us how the "political" and the "economic" were intricately related to each other and to philosophical reflection. Rothschild examines theories of economic and political sentiments, and the reflection of these theories in the politics of enlightenment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1389331 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Review
"A powerful and original reconsideration of the thinking of Smith and Condorcet. This is a reinterpretation of Enlightenment political economy. Delightfully fresh, sensitive, and wide-ranging." - Keith Baker, Stanford University"

The Economist, 17 August 2001
Rothschild has a wealth of knowledge at her command and wields it effortlessly...

The Financial Times, 29 December 2001
"...a bracing, illuminating analysis... "

Customer Reviews

Informative, Liberal, Inspiring
This is the best re-presentation of Adam Smith that I have read. It was inspiring to find him placed in the context of the late eighteenth century, shorn of the reactionary readings that have plagued his memory in later periods. Condorcet I knew less well, but he too is fascinating.