For a long time, the work of the 8th Earl of Lauderdale, James Maitland, was badly neglected. It has only been in this century that his contribution to economic thought has been reassessed and revalued. Since then he has come to be recognized as the earliest systematic critic of Smith's economic thought. This revaluation continues now with the publication of Lauderdale's Notes on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. The work, the existence of which was only discovered five years ago, is published here for the first time. It is reproduced from the hand-written notes and marginalia which appear in Lauderdale's own edition of the Wealth of Nations which in now housed in the Tokyo Keizai University Library. The notes are reproduced here in full along with the relevant passages from The Wealth of Nations to which they refer.

In contrast to traditional Enlightenment studies that focus solely on authors and ideas, Gary Kates' employs a literary lens to offer a wholly original history of the period in Europe from 1699 to 1780. Each chapter is a biography of a book which tells the story of the text from its inception through to the revolutionary era, with wider aspects of the Enlightenment era being revealed through the narrative of the book's publication and reception. Here, Kates joins new approaches to book history with more traditional intellectual history by treating authors, publishers, and readers in a balanced fashion throughout. Using a unique database of 18th-century editions representing 5,000 titles, the book looks at the multifaceted significance of bestsellers from the time. It analyses key works by Voltaire, Adam Smith, Madame de Graffigny, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume and champions the importance of a crucial innovation of the age: the rise of the 'erudite blockbuster', which for the first time in European history, helped to popularize political theory among a large portion of the middling classes. Kates also highlights how, when, and why some of these books were read in the European colonies, as well as incorporating the responses of both ordinary men and women as part of the reception histories that are so integral to the volume.

The first series of Smith "Critical Assessments" included major articles on Adam Smith and set a new standard for Smith scholarship. However, the years since its publication have seen further developments in the vast field of work on this leading economist. "Adam Smith: Critical Assessments--Second Series" completes the project of the earlier volumes by making available the many significant articles which have appeared during the past decade. It will be an invaluable reference for scholars of Smith. Together, the two series provide those interested in the history of contemporary economics with immediate access to the intellectual legacy of one of the world's greatest economic theorists.