Economics from the Outside in: "Better Than Plowing" and BeyondNobel laureate in economics James Buchanan has been called--and indeed, calls himself--an outsider in American economics. Original and even unorthodox in his pioneering contributions to public choice theory and variously revered or berated for his influence on the economic policies that took hold in the Reagan years, he has stimulated a productive vein of economic inquiry and an important strain of public policy. First published in 1992 under the title Better Than Plowing And Other Personal Essays, this collection of autobiographic writings was hailed as engaging, honest, and fascinating. The four new chapters of the present volume fill some gaps in his earlier reflections and add valuable assessments of the roots of his academic work. Economics from the Outside In provides a fascinating look at the humble origins and academic development of a recipient of the Nobel Prize, the intellectual underpinnings of a key American economic policy, and the role of the academician in today's society. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 19 | |
At the Turn of a HalfCentury Middle Tennessee and Murfreesboro 193640 | 35 |
An Easy War | 48 |
Bornagain Economist | 68 |
Italian Retrospective | 82 |
Virginia Political Economy Some Personal Reflections | 93 |
Country Aesthetic | 109 |
From the Inside Looking Out | 147 |
Nobelity | 158 |
Threescore Years and Ten | 174 |
The Blacksburg Story | 181 |
No Regrets | 194 |
Influences on My Academic Life and Thought | 203 |
Out to Pasture | 221 |
Index | 229 |
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academic activity allowed analysis Anarchy become behavior Blacksburg Buchanan called career Center challenge chapter Chicago considered constitutional course critical decades decision described developed direct discussion earlier early economics economists efforts elements emerged essay exist experience extended faculty Frank Gordon Tullock graduate ideas important independence individual influence initial institutional intellectual interest involved Italian Italy James Knight late later learned least less limits living matter Middle moved natural never Nobel normative noted observed offered officers operations peers perhaps Political Economy position possible Press principle public choice recall relatively remain research program responsibility role rules seemed selection sense shared shift simple social staff structure suggest surely Tennessee theory things tion understanding University Virginia whole write York
Popular passages
Page 174 - The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Page 130 - Had Pyrrhus not fallen by a beldam's hand in Argos or Julius Caesar not been knifed to death. They are not to be thought away. Time has branded them and fettered they are lodged in the room of the infinite possibilities they have ousted.
Page 143 - I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation —the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
Page 138 - The more we try to return to the heroic age of tribalism, the more surely do we arrive at the Inquisition, at the Secret Police, and at a romanticized gangsterism.
Page 137 - The qualities most useful to ourselves are, iirst of all, superior reason and understanding, by which we are capable of discerning the remote consequences of all our actions, and of foreseeing the advantage or detriment which is likely to result from them...
Page 212 - John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior.
Page 138 - Social progress means a checking of the cosmic process at every step and the substitution for it of another, which mny be called the ethical process...
Page 132 - We should realize that a city is better off with bad laws, so long as they remain fixed, than with good laws that are constantly being altered, that lack of learning combined with sound common sense is more helpful than the kind of cleverness that gets out of hand, and that as a general rule states are better governed by the man in the street than by intellectuals.
Page 143 - I must hold in balance the sense of the futility of effort and the sense of the necessity to struggle; the conviction of the inevitability of failure and still the determination to "succeed...