In our age of measurement, economic numbers - productivity, inflation, unemployment, gross domestic product - inform the decisions of both citizen and state. Since World War II, Canada has been at the global forefront in developing a set of national accounts that measure every beat of our economic pulse. The story of our national accounts - today administered by Statistics Canada - involves courage, personal tragedy, and a Canadian knack for innovation. Determined to banish the ravages of the Depression, win the war, and build a better post-war world, Canadian academics and mandarins applied...

How a national institution steeped in tradition adjusted to the momentous social, pedagogic, and cultural pressures of the late twentieth century.