Who cooked Adam Smith's dinner?
Subtitle: a story about women and economics
By: Katrine Marçal ; translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel
Contributors: Vogel, Saskia, translator
Edition: First Pegasus Books hardcover edition.
Publisher: Pegasus Books LLC
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 230
ISBN-13: 9781681771427
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Sociological aspects; Feminist economics; Economic conditions; Economic man; Economics; Women
Work titles: Enda könet
Description: "When philosopher Adam Smith proclaimed that our actions are motivated by self-interest, he used the example of the baker and the butcher to lay the foundations for his "Economic man." He argued that they gave bread and meat for profit, not out of the goodness of their hearts. It's an ironic point of view coming from a bachelor who lived with his mother for most of his life-- a woman who cooked his dinner every night. Nevertheless, Smith's economic man has dominated our understanding of modern-day capitalism, Such a viewpoint disregards the unpaid work of mothering, caring, cleaning, and cooking. Essentially, the father of modern economics has based our whole concept of capitalism on a system that ignores half of its participants. ...Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? charts the myth of the economic man, from its origins at Adam Smith's dinner table to its adaptation by the Chicago School to its disastrous role in the 2008 Global Financial Crisis."--Jacket flap.
Notes: Translation from Swedish of: Enda könet.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-227) and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface to the American edition; title: Prologue; title: Chapter one, in which we climb into the world of economics and ask ourselves who Adam Smith's mother was; title: Chapter two, in which we are introduced to economic man and realize that he is incredibly seductive; title: Chapter three, in which it becomes apparent that economic man is not a woman; title: Chapter four, in which we see that our pact with economic man isn't turning out as we had expected; title: Chapter five, in which we add women and stir; title: Chapter six, in which Las Vegas and Wall Street merge; title: Chapter seven, in which the global economy goes to hell; title: Chapter eight, in which we see that men are also not like economic man; title: Chapter nine, in which economic incentives aren't shown to be as uncomplicated as we might think; title: Chapter ten, in which we see that you aren't selfish just because you want more money; title: Chapter eleven, in which we see that a negative number is still zero; title: Chapter twelve, in which we all become entrepreneurs; title: Chapter thirteen, in which we see that the uterus isn't a space capsule; title: Chapter fourteen, in which we discover economic man's unforeseen depths and fears; title: Chapter Fifteen, in which we see that the greatest story of our time only has one sex; title: Chapter sixteen, in which we will see that every society suffers in line with its bullshit. And we say goodbye.