Jesse Norman is the Member of Parliament for Hereford and South Herefordshire. He read classics at Oxford and completed a masters and a doctorate in Philosophy from University College London. Before entering politics, he ran an educational project working in Communist Eastern Europe, and was a director at Barclays. He has been an Honorary Fellow at UCL, a Governor of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, and a Visiting Fellow at All Souls, Oxford. His previous books include a celebrated study of Edmund Burke.
This splendid book not only presents an excellent introduction to the life and ideas of Adam Smith, but also explains why - and how - Smith's insights can help us solve some of the most difficult social and economic problems of the contemporary world. Smith loved lucidity and relevance, and I think he would have been very happy with Norman's book. -- Amartya Sen Masterly ... amid the superficiality and hysterics of modern British politics, an admirably thoughtful brain is lurking -- Edward Lucas * The Times * An important work of revisionist biography with a direct and important impact on the intellectual underpinnings of liberal free-market thought -- Oliver Letwin * Telegraph * Superb ... Norman succeeds in demonstrating the coherence and subtlety of Adam Smith's thought -- Martin Wolf * Financial Times (Books of the Year) * A remarkable and intensely readable book ... a rejoinder to those who fear that the intellectual has disappeared from politics -- John Kay * Financial Times * This book is well-written, well-argued and intensely thought-provoking, and it will rightly raise Smith's posthumous reputation -- Simon Heffer * Spectator *