Alberto Burgio (ed.), Adam Smith and Modernity, 1723–2023

might seem intended to mark the tercentenary of Adam Smith's birth.However, celebration is not its purpose.In his brief introduction, the editor, Alberto Burgio, declares that the aims of the volume are to offer a 'fresh perspective' (xii) on Smith's works, to convey how these 'define the nature of the new era' emergent in the late eighteenth century, and to illustrate Smith's 'distinctive' perspectives on that era (xi).Whether these latter two objectives are met is debatable.There are fresh perspectives in this volume but also interpretations wanting in clarity, focus, analysis, and argument.The essays are grouped into five sections: the 'order of discourse', the 'virtues of modern man', 'ethics and economics', 'theory and critique of commercial society', and the 'problem of history'.In each section one may find excellent essays.In the first, on discourse, Fritz Söllner contributes a succinct and informed account of Smith's understanding of economic explanation in the Wealth of Nations.Söllner points out that Smith's sometimes incomplete discussions of mercantilism and physiocracy are deployed chiefly to defend Smith's own views.Indeed, Söllner finds it 'astonishing' that Smith 'never deigns to mention' (41) the political economy set forth by Sir James Steuart (1767).But Söllner's shock might have been tempered had he heeded a letter Smith wrote four years prior to the publication of his treatise.In the letter, Smith makes plain his attitude to Steuart's work: 'every false principle in it, will meet with a clear and distinct confutation in mine' (see the letter, 132, addressed to William Pulteney, in The Correspondence of Adam Smith).In the section devoted to virtue, Ryan Patrick Hanley carefully considers the pivotal role of self-command in Smith's moral theory.Smith regards this virtue as essential to individual ethical growth, a linchpin of dignity, and a condition for effective sympathy.Hanley's essay advances our appreciation of Smith's understanding of self-command, though readers may dissent from his incidental, perhaps excessive, claim that this virtue 'serves to advance the egalitarian social vision that Smith is concerned to promote' (61).In this same section, Stefano