The Moral Market: Adam Smith and the Promise of Virtuous Capitalism

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

Adam Smith has been misappropriated for two centuries. Invoked as the patron saint of self-interest and unrestrained markets, the real Smith - moral philosopher, civic thinker, and fierce critic of monopoly and greed - has been hiding in plain sight. The Moral Market recovers that Smith and puts him to work on the defining challenge of our time: how do we build a capitalism that actually works, not just for shareholders, but for society? Drawing on The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations in equal measure, and ranging across Bernard Mandeville, the Scottish Enlightenment, and contemporary governance failures, Patrick Ryan constructs a rigorous and readable case for virtuous capitalism. This is not nostalgia. It is architecture - a framework for markets built on prudence, justice, beneficence, sympathy, and civic purpose.