The Numbers Wonk as Existential Hero

Did you think there was once a golden age of honest budgeting? Well, it wasn't in Britain before or during World War I, according to a classic novel about the period. The novelist Ford Madox Ford placed the hero of his tale in a government career in statistics and budgeting. It seems like a strange choice for a hero, but the dilemmas of that career are the conditions against which the protagonist must struggle to maintain his integrity.