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The AAO Weblog covers accounting issues and current events as they relate the practice of investment analysis. All posts prior to September, 2007 are in the public domain, but after September 4, only subscribers to The Analyst's Accounting Observer will see all posts going forward. Only selected, occasional posts will be released to the public domain from September 4 forward.

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John Steele Gordon: Accounting's Roots
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Posted by: Jack Ciesielski 8/21/2007 2:29 AM
A few late summer reading links...

One of my favorite business authors, John Steele Gordon, penned a guest column in Barron's this week on the origins of accounting in the United States. Link here - $ if you don't subscribe online.

A nice, brief history - you might not make the link between railroads and accounting without Gordon's help. But it works. Also, I strongly recommend John Steele Gordon's "An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power."

Railroads would be one of my favorite industries even if they didn't play a role in getting modern financial reporting off the ground. Plenty of business history and American history, all at the same time. I read "The Men Who Loved Trains" by Rush Loving Jr. this summer - a concise, well-paced history of the creation and demise of the Penn Central, and the subsequent creation and sale of Conrail. Loving is a former Fortune reporter and knows how to tell a story.

I can't forget one of my favorite business historians of all time - Robert Sobel, who died in 1999. The man was a prodigious writer, appearing in Barron's and other periodicals frequently. My favorite book by Sobel: "When Giants Stumble," a chronicle of 15 classic business blunders by companies like Osborne Computer, W.R. Grace and E.J. Korvette - and the lessons to be learned from them.
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