How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness

In this book Roberts (of EconTalk fame) takes Adam Smith’s other major work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and makes it understandable in a modern context. There isn’t much economics here. Rather, Smith’s work is essentially an Eighteenth Century self-help book that lays out theories as to why, as self-interested beings, people behave in altruistic and moral ways. At the core is the premise that we all desire to be “loved and lovely” and if we can achieve that we will find happiness. I don’t know if this book has changed my life, but I think I may return to it again for inspiration in the future.