Book reviews [1982, Vol. 9. no. 2]

              The Accounting Historians Journal Vol. 9, No. 2 Fall 1982
BOOK REVIEWS
Dale A. Buckmaster, Editor UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
Carl Thomas Devine, Inventory Valuation and Periodic Income (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1942. Reprint edition, New York: Arno Press, 1980, pp. vii, 195, $19.00).
Reviewed by Dale Buckmaster University of Delaware
It is tempting, but unfair, to start a review by describing this book as containing more than anyone would ever want to know about in-ventories. Professor Devine identifies his objective in writing the book as an "investigation into the effects of various inventory valu-ation methods on the reported income stream." (p. iii) These "vari-ous inventory valuation methods" include Identified-Unit Cost, FIFO, Weighted Average, Moving Average, Standard Costs, Replacement Costs, Lower of Cost or Market, Normal Stock Methods (including LIFO), and Inventories at Selling Price.
Within the context of the literature of the period, Professor Devine does much more than examine the effect of these methods on in-come. The first chapter is an overview of accounting income theory and chapter two is a description of the nature of accounting inven-tory costing. In chapter three, Devine discusses balance sheet con-siderations of inventory valuation. Chapter four, "Costs and Their Determination," contains, as a part of the discussion of cost deter-mination, a section on the appropriateness of capitalizing interest. I found this section to be a more objective evaluation of the con-troversy than is found in contemporary literature. The chapter on Replacement Costs is a summary of the various positions on re-placement cost accounting current at that time. Chapter eleven, "Inventories at Selling Prices," is an interesting interpretation of revenue recognition. The highlight of chapter twelve, "Special Prob-lems in Inventory Valuation," is a discussion of the economics of hedging and the accounting treatment of hedging contracts.