The world certainly suffers no shortage of accounting texts. Themany out there help readers prepare, audit, interpret and explaincorporate financial statements. What has been missing is a bookoffering context and discussion for divisive issues such as taxes, debt, options, and earnings volatility. King addresses theiwhyi of accounting instead of the ihowi, providingpractitioners and students with a highly readable history of U.S.corporate accounting. iMore Than a Numbers Game A Brief Historyof Accountingi was inspired by Arthur Levitt's landmark 1998speech delivered at New York University. The Securities andExchange Commission chairman described the too-little challengedcustom of earnings management and presaged the breakdown in the UScorporate accounting three years later. pSomehow, over a one-hundred year period, accounting morphed froma tool used by American railroad managers to communicate withabsent British investors into an enabler of corporate fraud. Howthis happened makes for a