Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, Volume II: A Comprehensive Study of Economics and Political Economy

Vishal kumar: This book is very useful and full of valuable information.

India on Nov 25, 2023

ashok: I was under the wrong impression about the scope of Adam Smith's writings. It's vast and hugely broad!! This great intellectual has made tremendous contributions to human endeavour, economics, and wealth creation. Watch on Youtube how he helps a boy to get rich, which explains productive labor. As indian crony billionaires loot and ensalve people, an abridged short version should reach every human. This is a gem for relishing little by little for a very long term.

India on Nov 21, 2023

Amazon Customer: Husband enjoyed reading this book. He read it while we were camping and finished within the week.

United States on Nov 17, 2023

Tushar: The media could not be loaded.  Don't be fooled by Marxists or Lame economic theories read from the Father.

India on Oct 13, 2023

Vegan Person: I am only within the first chapters of the book. Each chapter is short. Bare in mind that then, many of the fact that the concepts developed after were not available so be prepare to read extensive explanations based on examples to explain an observation. It is a great insight to how things were written before and I am still eager to understand how is referenced today taking into account that it is and old work based on observation.

United Kingdom on Sep 25, 2023

Amazon CustomerAmazon Customer: Takeaways from Adam Smith‘s “The Wealth of Nations”

Quite a few years ago, as I stepped out the Walmart store in my neighbourhood, a man approached me for small change. I replied, “Sorry, I use a credit card and have no change.” Walking away with my bags of shopping, I looked back and saw a female Walmart employee come out to tell the panhandler to go away. Later, I went to a neighbourhood bank branch to get a roll of one-dollar coins (CAD), so that I could give small change in case I saw the man again. Since then, I am in the habit of giving him one coin when I see him.

On a recent evening, while passing by the neighbourhood movie house, I saw the man again. Sitting on the stone edge of a flowerbed in front of the theatre, he was asking two young girls for small change. I said, “Don’t bother them. I’ll give you one. O.K.?” Accepting the coin, he said, “God bless you.” He probably thinks I am well off and hopes to see me again soon. To put it in another way, he knows that only when givers like me stay “blessed” as he wishes, can he expect to receive help down the road. Simple economics: the poor needs help to come from the well off or the...

Canada on Jun 15, 2016

Tanthallas: *This review, needless to say, is long. It is for people who have an interest in classical political economy and its relation to the marginalist tradition. What I have attempted to do is take a critical approach toward contemporary mainstream economics based on what is written in the Wealth of Nations. I hope you enjoy it, and I look forward to constructive criticism and debate.

Adam Smith has had by far the greatest general impact on the formation of economic theory of all economic thinkers since - it was he who cast the mold within which the future of economic thought would take place. What I believe has been neglected in most accounts of Smith's contributions to economic theory, however, is that in his attempt at establishing a unified theory of political economy he was instead responsible for developing the framework from which two conflicting theoretical approaches towards economic analysis would later be derived - one with focus on market relations and the other with focus on the relations of production. This marks the beginnings of what has been, in my opinion, a major inconsistency in the development of economic thought - the incompatibility of the former tradition...

United States on Dec 17, 2009

William R. Krapek: A couple of years ago I went to a local bookstore determined to read 'Capital' as well as 'Wealth of Nations,' but since there wasn't a copy of the latter available at the time, I picked up the former, waded through all three volumes (which were very hard and took me 18 months), then went back to Smith. This is a review of the Modern Library hardcover edition, which I ordered here at Amazon.com.
Let it be said right off the bat that the big thing Marx gets trashed for has roots right here in the 'W of N:' namely, the Labor Theory of Value. Both Volume One of 'Capital' and 'W of N' spend the first 100 pages or so going over it. Both refer back to it constantly in later pasages. And both must be taken off the table without it. The LTV boils down to this: all value is created by people working and producing goods and services that other people need and/or want. Furthermore, they must produce these goods and services at at least the average level of productivity and at the appropriate level of demand. Otherwise you're working either harder or more easily for your cut of the national pie than you otherwise would. The LTV is so straightforward and intuitive you'd think there wouldn't...

United States on Nov 05, 2002