Looking Back at 85 Years of Service to the Public and the Profession

Although history's lessons appear clearest in hindsight, the best historians are individuals who lived to see the events of an era firsthand. For the 85th anniversary edition of The CPA Journal, the editors dug deep into the Journal's archives to curate this selection of articles, written by some of the most thoughtful practitioners and academics of their time, which represent the issues faced by the profession in the portentous 1930s, the abundant 1950s, the turbulent 1970s, the revitalized 1980s, and the uncertain turn of the century. Read on to survey the Journal's rich history of accounting from a variety of viewpoints, to understand how the profession has evolved alongside the complex U.S. economy, and to learn how the lessons of the past may help us face the challenges of tomorrow. —The Editors