Review : Worldly wise

27 July 1996

Who was it who said that a government has “the duty of erecting and
maintaining certain public works and certain public institutions, which it can
never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals, to
erect and maintain”? Franklin Roosevelt? No, it was that most famous of
free-marketeers, Adam Smith. In Teachings from the Worldly Philosophy (W. W.
Norton , $27.50, ISBN 0 393 03919 6), you can read the great economists’
own words, with only a little entertaining direction from editor Robert
Heilbroner.