Dr. Lee analyzes the process whereby the relatively unsophisticated accounting practices of the eighteenth century were transformed, by the end of the nineteenth, into something resembling the more regular and consistent methods of today. He concentrates primarily on net asset valuation and profit determination but also on the development of costing techniques.

Despite attempts by the state legislature to fashion the charter of the Pennsylvania Railroad in such a way as to insure a high degree of managerial accountability to the board of directors and to make the corporation broadly accountable to the public, things turned out very differently. The volume and complexity of managerial decisions quickly brought a centralization of power in the hands of the road's professional managers as the board atrophied, and the economic and political power of the road and its dominant figures (J. Edgar Thomson and Thomas A. Scott) negated much of the principle of public accountability.

This study describes the 1920s movement (spearheaded by Herbert Hoover) to reduce unemployment by reducing fluctuations in business production and investment. Although the efforts had very limited success, they anticipated later attempts to manage prosperity for the economy as a whole.

Professor Rosenberg describes an unsuccessful attempt by four international businessmen to obtain oil concessions in Iran during a period of concern about oil supplies. The incident illuminates some of the hidden politics of international business activity.