Is Adam Smith an apologist for capitalism who viewed it as the fourth and

final stage of socio-economic development? Was Smith provoked into his

moral and economic defence of capitalism by Rousseau’s Second Discourse?

Much current Smith literature would suggest the answer to both questions is

yes. But, perhaps, questions like these indicate that something has gone

very wrong with our interpretations of Smith? Paul Sagar thinks so. We

explore what needs to change and why in this conversation about his newly

published and enjoyably iconoclastic Adam Smith Reconsidered: History,

Liberty and the Foundations of Modern Politics (Princeton, 2022).