The Wealth of Nations | 10-Year Project
History, Philosophy, Literature, Ethics, Culture and Economic Thought: The Intellectual, Moral and Cultural Foundations of Modern Society
Project Overview
The Wealth of Nations is a ten-year research and publication project led by the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy in collaboration with international partners. It is dedicated to exploring the development of modern intellectual life from the Enlightenment to the present. The project brings together history, philosophy, literature, ethics, economic thought and culture as interconnected fields through which modern society can be understood, interpreted and critically examined through hermeneutic and historical approaches.
Through interdisciplinary research, publications, conferences and public dialogue, the project examines how ideas of society, culture, morality and economic life have been articulated and transformed from the Enlightenment era to the present across Europe and the transatlantic world. It illuminates the plurality of intellectual contributions that have shaped contemporary understandings of culture, governance and human experience while tracing the evolution of modernity from the Enlightenment through to the present.
The project seeks to preserve and transmit significant intellectual achievements expressed through books, poetry, works of art and philosophical and academic ideas that had considerable influence in their time but are now less widely recognised or known for the benefit of future generations. Through the recovery and re-examination of these contributions, it aims to deepen understanding of how such works and ideas shaped historical developments and continue to inform the intellectual and cultural conditions of the present.
In doing so, the project seeks to make accessible, under the banner of “The Wealth of Nations”, intellectual and cultural contributions of exceptional force and enduring influence, including books, poetry, works of art and philosophical and academic ideas that have shaped the imagination of societies, informed generations and left a lasting imprint on the development of the modern world. It opens these works and ideas to renewed engagement, supporting deeper understanding of the complexity of historical experience and the ways in which they continue to shape social and cultural development in our time.
