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(Books That Changed the World)
Atlantic Monthly Press
December 2006
On Sale: December 4, 2006
256 pages ISBN: 0871139499 EAN: 9780871139498 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
As one of the first titles in Atlantic Monthly Press’ “Books
That Changed the World” series, America’s most provocative
satirist, P. J. O’Rourke, reads Adam Smith’s revolutionary
The Wealth of Nations so you don’t have to. Recognized
almost instantly on its publication in 1776 as the
fundamental work of economics, The Wealth of Nations was
also recognized as really long: the original edition
totaled over nine hundred pages in two volumes—including the
blockbuster sixty-seven-page “digression concerning the
variations in the value of silver during the course of the
last four centuries,” which, “to those uninterested in the
historiography of currency supply, is like reading Modern
Maturity in Urdu.” Although daunting, Smith’s tome is still
essential to understanding such current hot-topics as
outsourcing, trade imbalances, and Angelina Jolie. In this
hilarious, approachable, and insightful examination of Smith
and his groundbreaking work, P. J. puts his trademark wit to
good use, and shows us why Smith is still relevant, why what
seems obvious now was once revolutionary, and why the
pursuit of self-interest is so important.
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