Principles of Political Economy

This standard biography of the founder of political economy provides indispensable background reading for the study of eighteenth century economic thought. This edition includes an exhaustive new introduction, "Guide to John Rae's Life of Adam Smith," by Jacob Viner which includes close critical commentary on various ambiguities or insufficiently covered points in Rae's narrative, as well as a chronology, publication list and index. Viner noted that as a comprehensive biography, it had "no substantial predecessor. Seventy years later, it still has no substantial successor ... That judgment is still valid." The New Palgrave