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

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Dennis C. Rasmussen is associate professor of political science at Tufts University. His books include The Pragmatic Enlightenment. He lives in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

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"This engagingly written book tells the story of a remarkable friendship between two giants of eighteenth-century thought and heroes of the Scottish Enlightenment. Rasmussen is a historically and philosophically astute guide to the lives and ideas of Hume and Smith--as well as those of a large cast of supporting characters. His highly readable narrative offers great insights into an influential intellectual and social world."--Steven Nadler, author of A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age

"After Hobbes, David Hume and Adam Smith are the two most important philosophers and social scientists in the English-speaking world. This cleverly constructed, learned yet eminently readable account uses their friendship to illuminate the ways in which their ideas converged and diverged. An appealing introduction for the novice, with plenty of added value for the well versed."--Jerry Z. Muller, author of Adam Smith in His Time and Ours: Designing the Decent Society

"In this impressive account of the close relationship between the two giants of the Scottish Enlightenment, Dennis Rasmussen brings out the full significance of the warm lifelong friendship and intellectual dialogue between David Hume and Adam Smith."--Leo Damrosch, author of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius

"A remarkable combination of page-turner and serious intellectual history, The Infidel and the Professor is enormously enlightening and impossible to put down."--William Easterly, author of The Elusive Quest for Growth

"Adam Smith and David Hume were two of the world s greatest thinkers. The joy of their friendship infuses every page of this marvelous book, which will make you love them both, as thinkers and people. If only one could have been at one of Hume s dinner parties!"--Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize-winning economist

"The Infidel and the Professor is the first book on the fascinating subject of the friendship between David Hume and Adam Smith. Masterfully weaving together the historical evidence, Dennis Rasmussen does justice to both the ideas of these two men and their larger social and intellectual context. The resulting account is erudite, absorbing, witty, and smoothly narrated."--Andrew Sabl, author of Hume's Politics

"This account of the friendship between two of the most important and famous thinkers of the eighteenth century David Hume and Adam Smith also provides an accessible introduction to their thought and writings."--John T. Scott, coauthor of The Philosophers' Quarrel