The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought

David Hume and Adam Smith were best friends. Rasmussen (political science, Tufts Univ.; The Pragmatic Enlightenment) "follows the course of their friendship from their first meeting in 1749 until Hume's death" in 1776. Evidence is drawn from their extant correspondence (56 letters, mostly Hume's; Smith's first surviving letter to Hume dates to 1763), but the life and writings of both men are helpfully situated within a broader Scottish-Enlightenment context. Rasmussen is surely right to highlight their shared skepticism about religion and Hume's pronounced impact on the younger Smith's Wealth of Nations. At times—when ascertaining the direction of intellectual influence—undue importance is placed on the publication dates of his subjects' books. After all, as his masterly account shows, the two frequently shared ideas before publishing them, including on the American crisis. (Some will also think more might have been done to show what Hume meant when he claimed to be "an American in my Principles.") The "Hume-Rousseau Affair" is handled nicely, as is the clamor occasioned by the posthumous publication of Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. An appendix reprints Hume's My Own Life and Smith's letter to William Strahan about Hume's final days and character.