In the 1950s, finance was a well-established part of the curriculum in the business schools of U.S. universities. A typical course would cover matters such as "institutional arrangements, legal structures, and long-term financing of companies and investment projects" (Whitley 1986a, pp. 154-155). What Weston (1966, p. 4) calls "the chief textbook of finance" had for several decades been The Financial Policy of Corporations by Arthur Stone Dewing, a professor of finance at Harvard University. The text had first appeared in 1919, and by 1953 its 1,500 pages required two separate volumes.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 158