ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author uses some key interpretive mythologies identified by Quentin Skinner to map out representations of Adam Smith in international political economy (IPE) and exposes some of the widespread problems of interpretation surrounding his work. A notion of 'pragmatic historiography' is developed from the work of Quentin Skinner and located within discussions of 'historicising' contemporary IPE. The chapter provides an account of Smith in IPE, identifying how many interpretations pay little or no attention to Skinnerian interpretive principles, so that his work can then be studied as part of a historicised IPE. In the Smith studies literature, mythology of doctrine has had a significant and lasting impact in the form of a debate that came to be known as the Adam Smith Problem. The chapter analyses an 'invisible hand' doctrine from Smith's text by characterising Smith as the 'father of economics' and reading concepts such as 'laissez-faire' and 'capitalism'.
