ACCOUNTING TEXTBOOKS AS CHANGE AGENTS: FINNEY'S "INTERMEDIATE" AND FINNEY AND MILLER'S "INTERMEDIATE" FROM 1934 TO 1958

This paper undertakes to illustrate how the two leading intermediate accounting textbooks published between the 1930s and 1950s, by Finney and Finney/Miller, regularly critiqued recommended and accepted practice, and proposed innovations, while the tendency in today's textbooks is solely to describe and codify standards and practice and therefore not to stimulate students' and instructors' critical thinking. The author recommends that today's textbook authors should emulate Finney and Finney/Miller.