Better than Plowing and Other Personal Essays.

In his autobiography, Better than Plowing and Other Personal Essays, Professor James Buchanan provides the historical narrative of a man of substance, character, prudence, and fortune. It is difficult to set Professor Buchanan's book aside.

Twelve essays describe the major influences on his intellectual career. The message of the book is a skillful blend of economics and moral philosophy. The title evokes the image of a man whose shoulders arched forward, bent toward the plow; a man who is ready to get on with it. The book's cover, on the other hand, provides a picture of someone obviously enjoying the fruits of something "better than plowing," Professor Frank Knight's description of his own career at Iowa and Chicago.

Understanding of Better than Plowing and Other Personal Essays is enhanced by reviewing "A Theory of Truth in Autobiography," by James M. Buchanan and Robert D. Tollison. They argue that "the degree of 'truth' reflected in autobiography depends, to some extent, on the factually observable biography of a person, . . . and that in most circumstances the less 'attractive' the observable biography, the more 'truthful' is the autobiography." "We claim that proclamations about self by economists are useful and truthful relative to those by moral philosophers" [1, 507]. Because the economist is presumptively accorded a less "quasi-saintly status" than the moral philosopher the economist autobiography moves toward a more truthful account. Further, "when economists write about themselves, they do not deviate so far from the objective reality of their lives so as to attract much attention or to need much correction. Indeed, economists, relative to other professions, rarely write about themselves" [1, 516]. Despite his feelings about the truthfulness of moral philosophers, he has achieved the delicate balance of truth and attractiveness.

In Chapter One, "Better than Plowing," Professor Buchanan traces his Tennessee roots, his early education, and the intellectual and collegial influences on his thought. Chapter One serves as a road map for the collection of essays in the book.

Chapter Two, "Early Times," provides "remembrances of things past" as a frame of reference for examining Professor Buchanan's later contributions. Its message is "hard times, good times--the father of the man." He displays a "wariness" for the damage to motivation experienced by his grandfather's early success in politics as governor of Tennessee (1891-93). He notes his father's own over-expansion of the farm and the effect of the bind on his family and in particular his mother's health. He notes with feeling the lack of incentives that his father experienced due to the joint ownership of the farm with five siblings, none of whom would ever own the farm, nor he the full fruits of his labors. While noting the isolation of rural Tennessee, he related his contact with the outside world through a crystal radio set of his own construction.

Chapter Three, "At the Turn of a Half-Century: Middle Tennessee and Murfreesboro, 1936-1940," provides his reflections of life at Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro. With the 1930s as a backdrop, Buchanan describes his images as an outsider to the community as a day student who paid his fees by milking cows and farm labor. He was simply too busy to worry about the temptations of adolescence that absorbed the time and energy of his peers.

Chapter Four, "An Easy War," describes the author's experiences in the Navy (1941-1945) and in particular the frustration of Buchanan's first exposure to discrimination--prejudice against southerners and those from southern schools. This was to have an important effect on his later thinking and perhaps served to over-compensate for the narrowness of those evaluating his work during this period and in later life. His quickness and accuracy in his activities earned him the respect of his peers and leaders. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was one who recognized the outlier qualities of the young naval officer.

Chapter Five, "Born-Again Economist," describes Buchanan's conversion by Frank Knight while at Chicago in the 1940s; Buchanan was neither a "natural born" economist, nor did he evolve into an economist. Rather, Professor Buchanan claims to have "sprang full blown" from a socialist who mistrusted markets to an economist who favored the discipline of the market to the artificial constraints of government.

Chapter Six, "Italian Retrospective," describes the effect of Professor Buchanan's Fulbright year in Italy; the significance of his developing interest in political decision structures which later allowed him to cross the threshold from public debt to public choice. The work of Knut Wicksell and the Italians left him with an enduring intellectual legacy that insured personal differentiation of his work from that of most of his American peers.

Chapter Seven, "Virginia Political Economy: Some Personal Reflections," isolates the contributions of the pioneers in the development of public choice. It is an intellectual autobiography of the effect of persons and events on the development of his ideas on government and economics. It was also the milieu from which the subdiscipline of Public Choice emerged.

Taking place in the late 1960s, Chapter Eight, "Country Aesthetic," describes the attraction and comforts of the hills of Blacksburg which may have offered a physical setting not unlike his youth in rural Tennessee. It offered a time for reflection on both the unfortunate culmination of the Economics Department at the University of Virginia and the broadening recognition of the new insights of Public Choice. The University of Virginia rejected the path breaking possibilities of nontraditional thought which subsequently led to the departure of Professors Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, and Ronald H. Coase. The loss of the talent pool and the synergy they produced caused irreparable damage to the University of Virginia. However, it had the positive effect of hardening the resolve of those rejected to work harder. Professors Buchanan and Coase have since received the acclaim they so richly deserved.

Chapter Nine, "Words Written Down," provides Professor Buchanan's personal list of influences which allowed him to "glean his vision from the words of others." Diverse sources include Nietzsche, Joyce, Orwell, Updike, Plato, Huxley, Popper, as well as an expected tribute to Knight and Adam Smith.

Chapter Ten, "From the Inside Looking Out," provides an unusual insider's perspective of Professor Buchanan's personal philosophy in which he claims to have created the intellectual opposite of an autobiographical chapter. He describes his endeavors not as labors, but as a form of mental exercise which allows his natural proclivity for expose.

Chapter Eleven, "Nobelity," recounts Professor Buchanan's struggle after 16 October 1986 (the date the Nobel Prize in Economic Science was announced) to reestablish control over his life and his battle with celebrity status. The final chapter, "Threescore Years and Ten," recounts from this landmark in Professor Buchanan's life to record a "generation's journey."

Professor Buchanan speaks from another culture--19th century liberalism--a culture from which contemporary society is adrift institutionally and morally. (He admits on page 156 in his statement "perhaps a century out of date.") Professor Buchanan's character is his message, and it is not revealed slowly, but telegraphed from the very beginning. Professor Buchanan speaks to individuals who deny what a market economy so clearly recognizes: that people have differing capacities to create value and that prosperity depends on "catallactics," which Professor Buchanan defines as the conditions giving rise to exchange whether in the political or market context.

Professor Buchanan's writing carries "a natural aura or sense of authority". His message does not seep, but comes firmly and lingers. For Buchanan, his systematic approach defines him: his intellectual endeavors are not merely an escape from physical labor, rather the fact that he places a higher value on approach over outcome serves as a model from which to apply his personal values to life's puzzles and hence truth. Professor Buchanan uses arguments that illuminate the meaning of human life and allow for differences in productive capabilities as in the case of the mildly retarded farm hands with whom he coaxed performance by providing a model of physical exertion.

Such terms as human value, character, and virtue might prove embarrassing in less skilled hands and with a less convincing supply of raw material with which to work. This fits well with Professor Buchanan's methodological individualism in that he believes that the only truth is that which people agree upon. It is by diligence that one establishes truth in this sense. Buchanan's message about the role of human limitations carries with it the importance of limited government, and a predilection for institutions to counterbalance the lack of political prudence on the part of the general population. It is a story that demonstrates the value of individual initiative, respect for the dignity of hard work, and an appreciation of the purposefulness of individuals.

Finally, the book will annoy those who cling to the social welfare state as a sacred virtue more important than the rights of individuals. On the other hand, it will excite those who believe that the rhetoric of rights as articulated by the social engineers obscures the moral issues on which people are divided and that we live in a world of class consciousness exacerbated by warfare among interest groups and institutions. In this way the book combines elements of moral philosophy as well as economics grounded in methodological individualism.

Reference

1. Buchanan, J. M. and Tollison, R. D., "A Theory of Truth in Autobiography." Kyklos, vol. 39 1986, Fasc. 4, 507-17.

Gordon L. Brady Sweet Briar College