A History of the West After Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations With Niall Ferguson | Hoover Institution

About this episode

Jon Hartley and Niall Ferguson discuss the impact of Adam Smith's work and the evolution of empires and economic thought in the modern era.

Jon Hartley and Niall Ferguson explore Niall's career, the power of networks in his books The House of Rothschild volume one (1998) and volume two (1999), and The Square and the Tower (2017); the rise and fall of empire in his books Empire (2003) and The Great Degeneration (2013), America’s global role in his book Colossus (2005), and the enduring legacy of Adam Smith on the 250th anniversary of The Wealth of Nations—as well as the Anglosphere, economic growth, and the rise of 21st-century socialism. Recorded on March 23, 2026. ABOUT THE SERIES Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and…

People in this episode

Host: Jon Hartley

Guest: Niall Ferguson

Topics covered

• history
• economics
• empire
• global role of America
• Adam Smith
• 21st-century socialism
• networks

Keywords

• Adam Smith
• Wealth of Nations
• Niall Ferguson
• empire
• economic growth
• 21st-century socialism
• Hoover Institution

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The House of Rothschild volume one, The House of Rothschild volume two, The Square and the Tower, Empire, The Great Degeneration, Colossus, The Wealth of Nations

More episodes of The Capitalism and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century Podcast

• Business Cycles, Growth, Misallocation, and AI with Pete Klenow | Hoover Institution · June 12, 2026 · 59 min
• Economic Freedom and Market Reforms in Latin America With Sebastian Edwards | Hoover Institution · May 27, 2026 · 1h 8m
• Former US Senator Phil Gramm on Inequality Fallacies and How Economic Freedom Creates Growth | Hoover Institution · May 7, 2026 · 1h 6m
• Reducing the Fed’s Balance Sheet With Fed Board Governor Stephen Miran | Hoover Institution · April 10, 2026 · 27 min
• Banking Systems and Crises from Deposit Insurance to Stablecoins with Charles Calomiris | Hoover Institution · March 27, 2026 · 1h 13m
• Is Miami Becoming Wall Street South? With Citadel Securities President Jim Esposito | Hoover Institution · March 6, 2026 · 41 min