Review of Truth or Profit: The Ethics and Business of Public Accounting by Dean Neu and Duncan Green

Truth or Profit: The Ethics and Business of Public Accounting, by Dean Neu and Duncan Green, addresses timely issues from an original and creative perspective. The subtitle of the book describes its theme - namely, the tension between the business and professional "calling" of the public accounting profession in Canada. It tracks the history of the public accounting profession in Canada from its inception until 2006, often through the eyes of the editor of the principal contemporary professional accounting magazine/journal. A subplot is that of the "normal accident", a term that is used to describe both the inevitability of this tension and the crises it produces from time to time. This work, slim (164 pages) and affordable, would be a useful resource for an upper-level course that considers accounting ethics.