DALE, EDWARD EVERETT. Cow Country. Pp. xii, 265. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1942. $2.75

• Published date: 01 November 1942
• DOI: 10.1177/000271624222400173
• Author: Ora B. Peake
• Date: 01 November 1942
• Subject Matter: Articles

229

related

auditors’

report,

pp.

461-484.

The

instructor

who

places

particular

emphasis

on

this

section

of

the

book

will

be

blessed

by

practitioners

who

later

employ

his

stu-

dents,

as

carelessly

prepared

work

papers

of

assistants

are

the

bane

of

the

auditing

principal’s

existence.

A

glance

at

the

balance

sheet,

p.

470,

shows

an

apparent

inconsistency

with

the

text.

On

page

51

it

is

stated

that

the

Cash

Surrender

Value

of

Life

Insurance

is

not

usually

considered

a

current

asset,

and

also

that

a

loan

against

such

a

policy

should

ordinarily

appear

among

the

liabilities

and

not

as

a

deduction

from

the

cash

surrender

value;

on

page

470

both

of

these

items

appear

in

the

apparently

unapproved

man-

ner.

Inconsistencies

of

this

sort

will

creep

into

any

textbook,

as

your

reviewer

knows

from

actual

experience,

and

its

mention

here

is

not

unkindly

intended.

In

conclusion,

the

book

contains

a

practi-

cal

coverage

of

auditing

for

the

advanced

accounting

student,

and

will

also

prove

a

desirable

addition

to

the

library

of

practi-

tioners.

THOMAS

W.

BYRNES

Columbia

University

STURHAHN,

EDWARD

MARSHALL.

Reinsur-

ance.

Pp.

249.

Hartford,

Conn.:

The

Author,

1941.

No

price.

THOMPSON,

KENNETH

R.

Reinsurance.

Pp.

vii,

275.

Chicago:

Commerce

Clear-

ing

House,

Inc.,

1942.

$4.00.

There

are

dozens,

even

hundreds,

of

American

books

and

booklets

on

the

sub-

ject,

How

to

sell

insurance.

Up

to

the

end

of

1941

there

was

not

one

book

written

by

an

American

on

&dquo;the

backbone

of

all

insurance&dquo;-reinsurance,

the

transfer

of

insurance

from

one

insurance

company

to

another,

a

still

broader

distribution

of

risks

than

that

in

insurance

itself.

Only

one

or

two

short

theses

and

relatively

few

articles

on

reinsurance

were

available

in

the

American

literature.

There

are

out-

standing,

all-embracing

works

on

reinsur-

ance

published

during

the

last

fifty

years

in

England,

France,

Italy,

Germany,

and

other

countries,

and

also

special

reinsurance

magazines

are

published

abroad.

It

is,

however,

unbelievable

that

most

American

books

on

insurance,

if

they

mention

re-

insurance

at

all,

regard

it

as

a

stepchild.

This

is

likewise

true

of

American

textbooks

on

economics,

many

of

which

(in

contrast

to

foreign

textbooks)

completely

ignore

in-

surance

or

treat

it

inadequately.

This

be-

ing

the

case,

one

should

be

grateful

to

the

authors

for

attempting

to

lift

the

curtain

on

the

mystery

of

reinsurance.

The

practitioner

Sturhahn

offers

&dquo;an

ac-

cumulation

of

data&dquo;;

he

concentrates

on

fire

and

some

marine

reinsurance.

A

valu-

able

part

is

the

hundred-page

appendix

con-

taining

agreements

and

contract

forms.

The

lawyer

Thompson

offers

&dquo;a

prelimi-

nary

treatise

and

a

digest

on

some

aspects

of

the

law

and

practice

of

reinsurance.&dquo;

He

includes

also

life

reinsurance.

The

most

noteworthy

part

is

the

hundred

and

ten

pages

of

citations

from

about

half

a

dozen

reinsurance

publications

in

English.

So

it

would

be

more

correct

to

call

this

book

&dquo;readings

on

reinsurance.&dquo;

It

is

a

half-completed

product,

not

a

finished

one,

in

the

author’s

own

opinion.

Neither

of

the

two

authors

has

used

any

book

in

another

language.

It

seems

that

such

omission

is

similar

to

not

mentioning

Columbus

in

a

work

on

the

discoveries.

In

any

case,

the

author

of

the

first

future

com-

prehensive

American

book

on

reinsurance

will

find

welcome

material

in

both

reviewed

publications.

But

much

will

have

to

be

added

on

the

historical,

economic,

actuarial,

technical,

and

statistical

sides

of

reinsur-

ance,

most

of

which

are

to

be

found

in

foreign

works

on

the

subject.

The

United

States

leads

the

world

in

life

insurance.

The

war

presents

a

unique

opportunity

for

America

to

become

pre-eminent

also

in

the

field

of

reinsurance,

perhaps

the

most

inter-

nationally

interwoven

business

institution.

ALFRED

MANES

Indiana

University

DALE,

EDWARD

EVERETT.

Cow

Country.

Pp.

xii,

265.

Norman:

University

of

Oklahoma

Press,

1942.

$2.75.

The

Cow

Country

is

composed

of

studies

which

the

author

has

written

during

the

last

twenty-five

years

and

which

he

has

published

in

periodicals.

The

articles

se-

lected

have

been

arranged

so

as

to

give

a

picture

of

range

life.

Some

parts

of

the

work

deal

with

historical

material;

other

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