Inside the Moral and Political Economy Program at Johns Hopkins University with Burgin, Halliday, and Liu

On this episode, Peter Boettke chats with Angus Burgin, Simon Halliday, and Glory Liu about their innovative work at the Center for Economy and Society and the creation of a new undergraduate program in Moral and Political Economy. They dive into the revival of political economy as a cross-disciplinary field, the pedagogical innovations shaping the next generation of thinkers, the coming 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, and more.

Dr. Angus Burgin is Associate Professor of History and Founding Director of the Program in Moral and Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University. He serves as Co-Executive Editor of the book series, Intellectual History of the Modern Age, and he is the author of The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression (Harvard University Press, 2015).

Dr. Simon Halliday is Associate Research Professor and Associate Director in the Center for Economy and Society at Johns Hopkins University. He is the co-author (with Sam Bowles) of an intermediate microeconomics textbook, Microeconomics: Competition, Conflict and Coordination (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Dr. Glory Liu is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. She is the author of Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher became an Icon of American Capitalism (Princeton University Press, 2022).

Show Notes:

• John Hopkins University’s BA in Moral + Political Economy
• Core Econ
• Adam Smith’s book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Liberty Fund, 1982)
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s book, Women and Economics (Small, Maynard & Company, 1898)
• Tim Rogan’s book, The Moral Economists: R. H. Tawney, Karl Polanyi, E. P. Thompson, and the Critique of Capitalism (Princeton University Press, 2018)
• Warren Samuels’ paper, “Adam Smith and the Economy as a System of Power”

**This episode was recorded October 30, 2025.