The Founding Texts of Economics: Reading Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Marx’s Capital and Keynes’s General Theory

Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Marx’s Capital, and Keynes’s General Theory are three paradigmatic texts which are foundational to any study of economics or political economy. Although they have long been abundantly quoted and commented on, these “Great Books” paradoxically are being read less and less, as the price of their success. The aim of this book is to encourage the reader to re-read these Texts, by providing “theoretical and conceptual entries” in the spirit of a reasoned dictionary. Hence the return to these works in the text, in statu nascendi, to shed light on their complexities, to loosen the imperialism of received ideas, and to underline their topicality from a theoretical point of view and to understand contemporary economic issues. For example, Adam Smith’s view of the need to add a liberal state to the “system of natural liberty,” Marx’s view of the ability of the capitalist system to overcome temporarily but periodically its contradictions, or Keynes’ view of the essential role of psychology in the decisions and behaviour of men in society. This book is vital reading for anyone interested in the history of economic thought, the founding theories of political economy and the history of ideas more broadly.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I: Adam Smith and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Chapter 1. From the Pin Manufacture to the Division of Labor as the birth of the economic subject, a condition for the opulence of Nations Chapter 2. From the conditions of the opulence of individuals to that of Nations: the Market and the invisible hand Chapter 3. From spontaneity to the System of natural liberty: The State as superintendent of the industry of private people, charged with directing it towards the employments most suitable to the interest of society Part II: Karl Marx (Trier, 1818, London, 1883) and Capital. A Critique of Political Economy (Das Kapital. Kritik der Politischen Oekonomie) (1867) Chapter 4. From the theory of value to the transformation of surplus value into profit and value into production price Chapter 5. Accumulation of individual capital and accumulation of total social capital: conditions and mechanisms of simple reproduction and reproduction on an expended scale Chapter 6. Business cycles and the dynamics of capitalism Part III: John Maynard Keynes (Cambridge 1883, Firle 1946) and The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) Chapter 7. The General Theory as the foundation of modern macroeconomics: from the demonstration of underemployment to economic policy proposals for a return to full employment Chapter 8. Enterprise, Speculation, Convention and Human Nature or economic instability as a consequence of the state of long-term expectation General conclusion

About the Author :
Philippe Gilles is currently Professor of Economics and Dean of the Faculty of Economics, University of Toulon, France.