Stephen Dubner

So you write, Glory, that the University of Chicago Economics Department not only embraced Smith around the middle of the 20th century, but also, to quote you to yourself, smoothed over or altogether obscured the complexities, tensions, and other problematic aspects characteristic of earlier readings of Smith.

Okay, so that's a lot to unpack.

Unpack that for me, please.

But then Viner and Knight go away.

They leave.

Then there's the new generation.

Here's what you write about them.

You write that by reworking Smithian concepts like individualism, self-interest, and the invisible hand, a new set of thinkers like Friedrich Hayek, George Stigler,

And Milton Friedman transformed Smith into an original way of thinking about an individualistic, market-oriented society that was justifiable on social scientific grounds.

So, wowzer.

That's an incredibly powerful sentence.

And again, much to be unpacked.

Did Stigler view Smith that way because Stigler felt that way and looked for support?

Or was he persuaded of that view by Smith's writing itself?

In Glory Liu's book, there is a photograph of a grinning George Stigler wearing a T-shirt that says Adam Smith's best friend.

Where did that come from?

As the story goes, Stigler liked to play a game with the very young children in his family where he would offer a million dollars if they could answer a tough question.

One day he asked, who is Adam Smith's best friend?

The answer Stigler was looking for was David Hume.

The answer he got was, you are Uncle George.