Pack, Spencer J.

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Connecticut CollegeDigital Commons @ Connecticut CollegeEconomics Faculty Publications Economics DepartmentSpring 1997(Review) Ian Simpson Ross, The Life of Adam Smithand Jerry Z. Muller, Adam Smith in His Time andOursSpencer J. PackConnecticut College, spencer.pack@conncoll.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/econfacpubPart of the Economic Theory Commons, Other Economics Commons, and the PoliticalEconomy CommonsThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Economics Department at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Economics Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For moreinformation, please contact bpancier@conncoll.edu.The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.Recommended CitationPack, Spencer J. (1997). Ian Simpson Ross, The Life of Adam Smith and Jerry Z. Muller, Adam Smith in His Time and Ours. History ofPolitical Economy, 29(1): 170-2.(Review) Ian Simpson Ross, The Life of Adam Smith and Jerry Z. Muller,Adam Smith in His Time and OursCommentsInitially published in History of Political Economy, Spring 1997, volume 29, issue 1, pages 170-2.© 1997 by Duke University PressDOI: 10.1215/00182702-29-1-170http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00182702-29-1-170This book review is available at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/econfacpub/28The Life of Adam Smith. By Ian Simpson Ross. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1995. Pp. 495. $35Adam Smith In His Time And Ours. By Jerry Z. Muller. Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1995. Pp. 272. $14.95One reads in the Preface to The Correspondence of Adam Smith(1977), Vol. VI of The Glasgow Edition of the Works andCorrespondence of Adam Smith, that in 1965 Ernest Mossner was askedto write a life of Smith by the Adam Smith Committee of GlasgowUniversity. As an indispensible preliminary to this task, he firstedited Smith's Correspondence: he also asked Ian Simpson Ross, aProfessor of English, to collaborate. Mossner (who wrote theexcellent Life of David Hume) died in 1986. The long awaitedbiography, authored by'Ross, has finally appeared.Ross has done a great deal of work. The bibliography showsthat he consulted manuscript collections from throughout Britain,as well as from the Czech Republic, France. Luxemburg, Switzerlandand the U.S.; Ross consulted 44 separate 18th century newspapersand periodicals in four languages; he found 5 new letters since the2nd editon of the Correspondence (1987), including one from thecollection d;f the ubiquitous Sraffa; and of course there is anextensive bibliography of secondary sources.For such extensive research the book is surprisingly short:the text is only 420 pages; there are only thirteen pages ofendnotes. Approximately 15% of the text is devoted to summarizingSmi th's wr1ti ngs.The book is dense. Crammed with details, full of digressions,it is not a book to be skimmed, e.g.: "Flattering though Smith's2approval was, It did not detain Boswel1 In Glasgow long, for he ranoff to London In March 1760 to become a Roman Catholic convert,contemplate entering a monastery abroad, and settle forlibertinism, all within three weeks (Pottle, 1965; 1966: 230-53)."(134) One wishes for a more judicious use of endnotes forthese sorts of digressions.Ross guides us through Smith's economics with an unsteadyhand. Given his writing style, some of his sentences aredisorienting. For example, In describing problems with the AyrBank, Ross writes: "As the bank got going, there was an economiccrisis in Scotland, to which Hume alluded, arising from investmentsoutrunning savings, a fall in the price of commodities such aslinen, and a 'spirit of overtrading'". (242)This sentence could conceivably make sense, provided one cameup with appropriate (unorthodox) definitions of savings andinvestments, explained why too much investments would cause acrisis, and explained why a fall in the price of commodities wouldoccur during a time of overtrading. Ross does not do this.The book suffers from problems of proportionality. Rosssummarizes everything Smith wrote. Yet, there is relatively littleon Smith's economics. For example, Ross spends about 5 pagessumming up The Wealth of Nations. This is only two more pages thanhe uses to comment upon the literary gossip contained in the Bee bythe pseudonymous "Amicus". (The editors of Smith's Lectures onRhetoric and Belles Lettres admit that "the moral propriety ofreprinting yet again the gossip of Amicus may rightly be3questioned" ("Introduction": 33)). A biography with such littlediscussion of Smith's political economy Is surprising.The only other full scale biography on Smith Is by thejournalist (not the Canadian economist) John Rae. First publishedIn 1895, this 440 page text was reprinted with Jacob Vlner's 138page Introduction In 1965. Ross scarcely mentions this book whichbears the same title as his: Life of Adam Smith. A more criticalencounter with It would have been appreciated.Ross's work Is meant to supersede Rae/Viner as the definitiveSmith biography. I think It w i l l . Nonetheless, comparison withwhat, e.g., Vlner wrote on Smith's relations with Edmund Burke (23-33) and Smith on pin-making (103-109) with Ross's handling of thesame topics (355-358; 273) suggests that Ross's picture Is notnecessarily the more sophisticated one.The best part of the book Is the last third where Ross detailsSmith's life after having written the Wealth of Nations. Thesurprising Smith leads a rather quiet life as Commissioner ofCustoms. Here Ross Is most persuasive and Informative, no doubtdue to his Intimate familiarity with Smith's correspondence, aswell as his dogged pursuit of all Smithian anecdotes.Nonetheless, Ross relates all anecdotes without sufficientlychallenging or assessing their validity. A l l interested in Smith'slife w i l l need to consult this work; yet, let the consumer beware.Mention should, I suppose, be made of Smith's sex life.Shortly after relating an anecdote that Smith could not endure aFrench woman who had amorous designs upon him, Ross writes, "it isi4to be feared that the biographer can do little more with the topicof Smith's sex life than contribute a footnote to the history ofsublimation (214)," Recall that conviction of sodomy In 18thcentury England was punishable by hanging; conviction of attemptedsodomy could get one sentenced to the pillory, fined andImprisoned. (Norton: 130). Given the legal, moral, and socialclimate regarding gays, Smith's extreme discretion, and other hintsIn his life, the theory that Smith was Indeed gay merits seriousconsideration; perhaps even Investigation. I leave It for others toconsider what effect (If any) this could have had upon Smith'stheological, moral, legal, and economic views.1Jerry Muller's book, Adam Smith: In His Time and Ours wasoriginally published by the Free Press In 1993; PrincetonUniversity Press has now reissued It In a paperback edition.This Is a fine, balanced overview of Smith's social theory.Muller, a historian, Is a lucid writer who Is quite good on thehistorical background to Smith's world. Muller emphasizes thatSmith wished to design Institutions to make people more decent;Muller calls this the Institutional direction of the passions.Muller attempts to survey a tremendous amount of materal; hegenerally succeeds. There Is very little on Smith's technicaleconomic analysis; nonetheless, Muller has a good grasp of Smith'sgeneral political economy and general social theory.Part One, "Adam Smith In his Time" has three chapters5outlining Smith's life, mid-18th century British society, and theintellectual background to Smith's thought.Part II, "Designing the Decent Society", has short, generallyeffective chapters on Smith's views of the mercantile system,social science as the anticipation of the unanticipated, commercialhumanism as Smith's ci v i l i z i n g project, the impartial spectator,the historical and institutional foundations of commercial society,the moral balance sheet of commercial society, the state, thesociology of religion, and moral and political leadership incommercial society.Muller's system breaks down in Part III "From Smith's Time toOurs". He has a chapter where he unsuccessfully attempts to tracethe entire history of critics to Smith in just 8 pages; and otherunduly sketchy chapters on unanticipated consequences of Smith'srhetoric, and the "timeless and the timely" in Smith's thought.An entertaining opinionated 20 page "Guide to Further Reading"concludes this accessible work.1. On Keynes work and his sex life, see, e.g. Hession.References:Hession, Charles H., 1984. John Maynard Keynes: A PersonalBiography. New York: Macmillan.Norton, Rictor.1992. Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculturein England 1700-1830. London: GMP Publishers LTD.Spencer J. PackDepartment of EconomicsConnecticut CollegeNew London, Connecticut 06405

(Review) Ian Simpson Ross, \u3cem\u3eThe Life of Adam Smith\u3c/em\u3e and Jerry Z. Muller, \u3cem\u3eAdam Smith in His Time and Ours\u3c/em\u3e

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(Review) Ian Simpson Ross, \u3cem\u3eThe Life of Adam Smith\u3c/em\u3e and Jerry Z. Muller, \u3cem\u3eAdam Smith in His Time and Ours\u3c/em\u3e

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