Better than Plowing and Other Personal Essays.

• Author: Brady, Gordon L.

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...