Book review : Christopher J. Berry, Adam Smith : a very short introduction

Christopher J. Berry, Adam Smith: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, xx + 128 pp, ₹250. ISBN 978-0-198-78445-6 (paperback). Oxford University Press began its “very short introductions” in 1995 “for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way into a new subject”. Since then, it has published four books on key economic thinkers: Peter Singer on Karl Marx (2001; second edition in 2018), Robert Skidelsky on Maynard Keynes (2010), Donald Winch on Robert Malthus (2013; originally published as an OUP Past Master in 1987) and Christopher Berry on Adam Smith (2018) which is the book under review. Berry’s Adam Smith devotes Chapter 1 to Smith’s “life and times”, Chapter 2 to his relatively less known work on the history of astronomy, rhetoric and scientific explanation, Chapters 3 and 4 to the Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS hereafter), Chapters 5 and 6 to the Wealth of Nations (WN hereafter) and Chapter 7, the final one, to Smith’s “legacy and reputation”