Riches and Poverty explores an influential idea in political economy. The work of Adam Smith provided a key for studying the rich and poor and assessing the American and French revolutions. Meanwhile Britain embarked on its career as the first manufacturing nation, and the debate on poverty provoked an intellectual rift between Malthus and the Lake poets that continues to influence our perceptions of cultural history. Donald Winch has written a compelling narrative of these developments, which emphasizes throughout the moral and political bearings of economic ideas.