The Wealth of Nations

The Wealth of Nations is the foundational text of modern economics, a work that established the discipline as a field of systematic inquiry. Adam Smith's concepts of the invisible hand — the notion that individual self-interest can produce collective prosperity — and the division of labor as the engine of productivity have shaped economic thinking and policy for nearly two and a half centuries.

Published in 1776, the same year as the American Declaration of Independence, The Wealth of Nations appeared at a pivotal moment in the transformation of the Western world from agrarian to industrial economies. Karl Marx's Das Kapital was conceived in part as a response to and critique of Smith's vision of capitalism, making The Wealth of Nations the starting point for the great economic debates that have defined the modern era. It remains a core text in economics programs worldwide.