Carol Johnston answers this question by returning to the headwaters of Western economic thinking. In Adam Smith's Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), growth in the production of goods -- any goods -- became the goal of capitalism, and the self-interested choice of individuals in the marketplace became its powerful engine. An invisible hand, Smith asserted, would connect self-interest with concern for the preservation of communities and nations. But as loggers square off against spotted owls and developers plow over unearthed artifacts, questions resonate: Has that invisible hand disappeared? Has creative self-interest become destructive self-indulgence?

"The Wealth Or Health Of Nations" examines in detail the value assumptions of this royal road in Western economic theory, from Smith and John Stuart Mill to John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman. At each turn, Johnston reports what the economist contributed and what opportunities were missed as the theory got narrower and narrower, until only the decisions of individuals in the market were the center of economics, and money became the only reality. She then offers a proposal for transforming the focus of capitalism from wealth to community and national health.