Glory Liu recently published a book called Adam Smith's America, how a Scottish philosopher became an icon of American capitalism. She writes in her book that the wealth of nations became the origin point of the science of political economy in the United States. The important thing in the founding era is that Smith is important as a very technical resource, but he hasn't quite obtained that halo around him yet.
Economists and politicians have turned him into a mascot for free-market ideology. Some on the left say the right has badly misread him. Prepare for a very Smithy tug of war. (Part 2 of “In Search of the Real Adam Smith.”)