Preface; General introduction Stefan Collini; Presentation of 'Economy, Polity, and Society'; Part I: 1. Sociability and self-love in the theatre of moral sentiments: Mandeville to Adam Smith E. J. Hundert; 2. That noble disquiet: meanings of liberty in the discourse of the North Dario Castiglione; 3. Language, sociability, and history: the foundations of Adam Smith's Science of Man Nicholas Phillipson; 4. Adam Smith and tradition: The Wealth of Nations before Malthus Richard Teichgraeber; Part II: 5. Economy and polity in Bentham's science of legislation David Lieberman; 6. 'A gigantic manliness': Paine's republicanism in the 1790s Richard Whatmore; 7. Irish culture and Scottish enlightenment: Maria Edgeworth's histories of the future Marilyn Butler; 8. Improving Ireland: Richard Whately, theology and political economy Norman Vance; Part III: 9. Political and domestic economy in Victorian social thought: Ruskin and Xenophon Jane Garnett; 10. State and market in British university history Sheldon Rothblatt; 11. Mr Gradrind and Jerusalem Donald Winch; Acknowledgements; Index.