An Authentic Account of Adam Smith

by Gavin Kennedy

This book is a textual criticism of modern ideas about the work of Adam Smith that offers a new perspective on many of his famous contributions to economic thought. Adam Smith is often hailed as a leading figure in the development of economic theories, but modern presentations of his works do not reflect Smith's actual ideas or influence during his lifetime.

Gavin Kennedy believes that Smith's name and legacy were often appropriated or made into myths in the 19th and 20th centuries, with many misconceptions persisting today. Offering new analysis of works on rhetoric, moral sentiments, jurisprudence, the invisible hand, The Wealth of Nations, and Smith's very private views on religion, the book gives a new perspective on this important canonical thinker.

227 pages, Hardcover

Published January 19, 2018

About the author

Gavin Kennedy was a Scottish economist and founder of Negotiate. He was a leading figure in the world of negotiation and was involved in many high profile consultancy cases for governments and businesses. He was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Edinburgh.

Kennedy studied economics at Strathclyde University, graduating with a BA in 1965 and then studying for an MSc. After taking a Ph.D. at Brunel University in London, he returned to Strathclyde as a senior lecturer in 1973. In 1980 he left Strathclyde for a professorial chair at Heriot-Watt University, and in 1986 he founded a company, Negotiate, to commercialise what he was teaching. He trained thousands of managers in the techniques he had developed.

Kennedy also wrote biographies of William Bligh (1978) and Adam Smith (2005).

In the 1970s, Kennedy became active in the Scottish National Party (SNP). In 1976 he wrote a paper entitled A Defence Budget for Scotland and edited a book of essays entitled The Radical Approach: Papers on an Independent Scotland. In the General Election of 1979 he was the SNP candidate in Edinburgh Central and he subsequently joined the left-wing 79 Group.

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This latest 2018 contribution by Gavin Kennedy should be the final nail in the coffin (Kennedy has contributed a number of such nails in the past in books published in 2005, 2008 and 2010) of the 'Invisible Hand of the Market' myth that started at the University of Chicago Economics department in the late 1920's with the publication of Jacob Viner's 1927 paper on Adam Smith in the Journal of Political Economy.

Paul Samuelson, unfortunately, propagated, magnified, and amplified this error exponentially in the late 1940's and after in his otherwise excellent Economics textbook.

This accounts for the widespread misbelief among economists that the free market mechanism translates micro-greed into macro-good for all in the aggregate.

This book also covers a number of other topics in a masterly way, such as Smith's views on religion. Smith was no longer a member of an organized Christian religion (The Presbyterian Church of Scotland) for the last 25 odd years of his life due to the church's constant attempt to completely control and regulate their members every thought and act.

What most impressed me is Kennedy's treatment of Jeremy Bentham. He is not mentioned anywhere in the book. This is appropriaate because Smith himself, never, ever, mentioned Bentham, or Bentham's dangerous Benthamite Utilitarianism, anywhere in the Theory of Moral Sentiments or the Wealth of Nations.

This is the book you want to buy if you have not read Adam Smith or are unfamiliar with him.

Michael Emmett Brady