Farmboy-turned-economist Scott Irwin uses entertaining stories from his life to introduce basic concepts of commodities futures in Back to the Futures.

Irwin grew up on a farm in Iowa, and that experience gave him firsthand knowledge about the practical aspects of commodities futures. Although futures are often dismissed as the stuff of speculators, Irwin explains how buying and selling futures contracts can allow farmers and others to “hedge their bets,” in effect “buying insurance” and locking in a price for their product, whether it be corn, oil, silver, cattle, sugar, or other goods.

Irwin’s approach to his subject is oblique, charming, and effective. Unlike a typical finance author, he shares stories of risky behavior and near-death experiences from his younger days, using each as a launching pad for another lesson about commodities futures. That format, which might seem to risk being clunky or contrived, instead flows smoothly and offers suspense, humor, and real-world action—even including examples from popular movies to illuminate the workings of the futures market—to balance out the intellectual side of the book.

The prose is delivered in a strong, knowledgeable, yet humble voice that paints a vivid picture of young Irwin’s town, friends, and neighbors. In one example, stories about a friend’s reckless snowmobile and auto driving provide a transition to a section explaining futures market speculation: “Jack’s daredevil attitude in these misadventures is a fitting representation of the spirit of a speculator.”

Irwin has a gift for clear, simple examples, as when he explains “cornering the market” through the popular card game of Hearts. He also focuses on his own career and academic work, much of which defends the open market and speculators from government intrusion and restrictions. Two sections of photos display Irwin’s Iowan roots and business moments.

In all, Back to the Futures is a unique, fun, and educational guide to understanding commodities futures.

Irwin, an agricultural economist, with Peterson, a veteran university writer, recollects a risk-taking youth and defends futures market speculation.

Irwin grew up on his father’s farm in Bagley, Iowa. Before he became a farmer, Irwin’s father managed grain elevators, and as a result he always keenly followed the agricultural markets. From him, the author inherited a deep intellectual interest in the workings of the market, particularly in the category of agricultural futures (“I was a market nerd from a young age”). He attended Iowa State University—his father planned for him to become a “superfarmer,” but Irwin became fascinated by agricultural economics, a subject in which he would earn a doctorate from Purdue University. Irwin tells three parallel stories in this eclectic memoir: his wild risk-taking as a youth, the nature of futures speculation as a kind of rationally managed embracing of risk, and his own experience as an agricultural economist defending futures speculation. This last element forms the core of the memoir: As a counterpoint to the popular caricature of futures speculators as “villains” who befoul the market through their “sinister manipulations,” he accessibly presents them as necessary and largely helpful participants in the market. “Futures markets are not mere curiosities, for they sit at the very heart of our economy. They function as a critical nerve center for the market economy and are important to everyone. Futures markets set the prices for some of the most important commodities in our global economy…” In the main, Irwin convincingly argues, they assist the market in the management and distribution of risk, inject much-needed liquidity, and, since they must contend with considerable exposure to financial danger, they enhance the market’s overall rationality. Irwin’s outline of the futures market is remarkably clear and should be comprehensible even for those with a modest background in economics. The text is written in an engaging, personal, anecdotal style that adds a human element to material that, by its very nature, threatens to become academically dry; it’s hard to imagine a more enjoyably readable book about the subject.

An entertaining and instructive blend of economic theory and personal remembrance.