Reviewed by Lamont F. Steedle Towson State University

Relevance Rediscovered is an anthology of significant articles describing cost accounting practices and developments which have appeared in the periodicals of the National Association of Cost Accountants (NACA), known today as the National Association of Accountants (NAA). The publication of the first in a series of volumes signals the beginning of the commemoration of the organization’s 75th anniversary in 1994. NAA’s goal is to provide the reader with:

… the opportunity to be able to explore the writings of leader member/practitioners of the NACA from its inception. Contained in this volume are the great accounting ideas of the past, to help you solve today’s and tomorrow’s problems. [p. iii]

If this first volume is representative of those to follow, the NAA has succeeded in providing that perspective.

Volume I of the anthology covers the organization’s initial decade from 19191929. It contains articles gleaned by researcher Richard Vangermeersch from NACA bulletins and yearbooks. Yearbooks comprised the papers presented at the annual cost conference. Bulletins containing articles were regularly published twice a month beginning in 1922, and prior to that on a sporadic basis. The 25 articles chosen, presented chronologically, were selected by Vangermeersch to provide a sample of the decade and to complement his choices forthcoming in future volumes in the series.

The articles are prefaced by a wonderful introduction in which Dr. Vangermeersch cites 10 reasons why this past literature should be studied, followed by a concise introduction and review of each article. In introducing an article, he provides background on the author and offers several thoughtprovoking questions for the reader. Although his comments are directed to the reader as management accounting practitioner, the work is easily adaptable for the classroom as well.

All of the individual articles are deserving of the reader’s attention but in addressing the goal of using the great ideas of the past to solve current problems, some selections are more appropriate than others. Some topics are of questionable relevance to today’s problems, some articles are only marginally tied to accounting, and some works made for slow reading. Indeed, there are times when reader interest, piqued by Dr. Vangermeersch’s introductory comments, falls upon encountering the article. Although three or four selections could be eliminated without sacrifice, all of the works are worthy of inclusion. There are six articles ideally suited to the purpose of the anthology in the mind of this reader: (1) “Calculation and Application of Departmental Burden Rates” by Gould L. Harris, which traces the history of overhead accounting and presents a solution to the allocation problem; (3) “Some Problems in the Actual Installation of Cost Systems” by H. G. Crockett, which examines issues relative to the types of cost systems used in particular factories, (9) “Radio Education Campaign” by the NACA, transcripts of radio messages addressing the role of cost accounting to workers, management, and the public; (12) “Indirect Labor” by Harry J. Ostlund, which examines a growing segment of costs undergoing little detailed analysis; (18) “Question Box” with NACA President Clinton H. Scovell presiding, a debate of five current management accounting problems; and (19) “Financial Control Policies of General Motors Corporation and Their Relationship to Cost Accounting” by Albert Bradley, which provides a detailed case study of a cost accounting system.

In light of recent accusations that management accounting has lost its relevance, and in view of the fact that the factory of the future is changing the discipline of cost accounting and new worldclass accounting systems must evolve to meet the needs of worldclass manufacturers, this work provides a useful perspective. What were cost accounting systems like in the 1920s and have they changed? Are the new cost accounting ideas of the 1990s all that new? Opinions on these matters, along with a sense of the problems of the time and the thinking of the leading cost accounting minds, stimulate the thoughtful reader to appreciate this resource.