2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, widely considered the founding text of modern economics and the most important work in social science to come out of the Enlightenment. Smith was, in addition, a moral and political philosopher who had written a Theory of Moral Sentiments and given an influential series of lectures on law before he ventured into economics. And he was very much concerned about the war between Britain and the future United States that began in 1775; he indeed analyzed that conflict in the Wealth of Nations and proposed a solution to it. Finally, he had indirect connections to Princeton: the Scottish minister John Witherspoon was perhaps the first professor to include the Theory of Moral Sentiments in his moral philosophy curriculum, when he came to America to become President of Princeton, and Witherspoon’s student James Madison put the Wealth of Nations on a proposed list of books for the Library of Congress, and quoted from it in several early speeches to Congress.

Organized by 2025-2026 LSR Fellow Samuel Fleischacker, this conference will address all of these aspects of Smith’s book and explore how it remains relevant to politics and economics in the present day.

Speakers:

Mark Skousen, Chapman University, Lecturer; Presidential Fellow in Business; Doti-Spogli Endowed Chair of Free Enterprise

Benjamin Friedman, Harvard University, William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy

Michelle Schwarze, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Associate Professor, Political Theory

Ryan Hanley, Boston College, J. Joseph Moakley Professor of Political Science

Greg Conti, Princeton University, Associate Professor of Politics

Samuel Fleischacker, University of Illinois Chicago, LAS Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Placement Director

Keynote speaker:

Gloria Liu, Georgetown University, Provost's Distinguished Faculty Fellow; Assistant Professor