Get in, losers, we're reading the Digression on Silver

Read "The Digression on Silver" from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations with me in August. I wrote a thing. And some recommendations.

Author

Janet Bufton
June 26, 2023

This post has been moved over from my old Substack.

You can register here for a two-session online reading group this summer in which we read the “Digression concerning the Variations in the Value of Silver” in Book I chapter 11 of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

Let’s sell this thing: This digression is famously something people force themselves through, feel confused, and then never read again. We, on the other hand, are going to read it and talk about it over lunch on August 22 and 24 from 1:00–2:00 p.m. ET.

Before I co-tweeted the whole Wealth of Nations, we joked that this digression would warrant one or two tweets and then everyone could once again move along. Instead, it took us seven days (one two three four five six seven).

Reading the digression deeply improved my understanding of the entire book and Smith’s intellectual project more generally. I think Maria Pia Paganelli is onto something when she calls it “the centerpiece of the Wealth of Nations”. It’s richer than you think.

So. Come read with me. You don’t need to be an expert. We’ll be focussing on a shared set of readings and anyone who brings in more material will be required to explain it. You do, however, need to commit to showing up for both sessions and register here.

Hope to see you in August!

Oh! I am also on AdamSmithWorks with some thoughts on liberalism and think tanks with Daniel Rothschild. You can find it here.

Plus, a couple of recommendations:

I found this discussion of “jiu-jitsu persuasion” valuable, even if you’re looking only to build understanding and not to convert people to your point of view.

This podcast on “The Patriarchal Christian Right” is interesting not (or at least not only) for its discussion of patriarchy but for the story that it offers about how this group influences American partisan politics and how it can explain why some issues that don’t have much to do with one another got lumped together in that context.