A History of Accountancy in the United States

A History of Accountancy in the United States
Author: Gary John Previts
Publisher:
Total Pages: 612
Release: 1997
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The only comprehensive chronicle of American accountancy from the colonial period to the present, this completely revised edition provides practicing accountants and professional accounting students with a thorough knowledge of the origins of their profession. Gary John Previts and Barbara Dubis Merino address the evolution of accounting in social, political, and economic terms and discuss the major figures in each historical period. They consider the development of accounting in all of its major institutional domains, including public practice, financial reporting, business management, government, and education.

A History of Financial Accounting (RLE Accounting)

A History of Financial Accounting (RLE Accounting)
Author: J. Edwards
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2013-12-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134678819

This volume deals with the evolution of accounting from earliest times, and gives particular attention to corporate accounting developments since the Industrial Revolution. The author identifies the various sources of accounting practices employed by British companies, to demonstrate the main changes which have taken place, when they occurred and why. The author emphasises the need to understand the legal, social and economic context in which accountancy changes take place, and also studies the conflicts which arise between suppliers and users of accounting statements. The study concludes with an examination of the duties performed by the professional accountant, the extent to which these have changed in the course of time and how his position in society is reinforced by the activities of professional institutions.

A White-Collar Profession

A White-Collar Profession
Author: Theresa A. Hammond
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2003-01-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0807874949

Among the major professions, certified public accountancy has the most severe underrepresentation of African Americans: less than 1 percent of CPAs are black. Theresa Hammond explores the history behind this statistic and chronicles the courage and determination of African Americans who sought to enter the field. In the process, she expands our understanding of the links between race, education, and economics. Drawing on interviews with pioneering black CPAs, among other sources, Hammond sets the stories of black CPAs against the backdrop of the rise of accountancy as a profession, the particular challenges that African Americans trying to enter the field faced, and the strategies that enabled some blacks to become CPAs. Prior to the 1960s, few white-owned accounting firms employed African Americans. Only through nationwide networks established by the first black CPAs did more African Americans gain the requisite professional experience. The civil rights era saw some progress in integrating the field, and black colleges responded by expanding their programs in business and accounting. In the 1980s, however, the backlash against affirmative action heralded the decline of African American participation in accountancy and paved the way for the astonishing lack of diversity that characterizes the field today.

More Than a Numbers Game

More Than a Numbers Game
Author: Thomas A. King
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2011-02-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1118044614

The world certainly suffers no shortage of accounting texts. The many out there help readers prepare, audit, interpret and explain corporate financial statements. What has been missing is a book offering context and discussion for divisive issues such as taxes, debt, options, and earnings volatility. King addresses the why of accounting instead of the how, providing practitioners and students with a highly readable history of U.S. corporate accounting. More Than a Numbers Game: A Brief History of Accounting was inspired by Arthur Levitt's landmark 1998 speech delivered at New York University. The Securities and Exchange Commission chairman described the too-little challenged custom of earnings management and presaged the breakdown in the US corporate accounting three years later. Somehow, over a one-hundred year period, accounting morphed from a tool used by American railroad managers to communicate with absent British investors into an enabler of corporate fraud. How this happened makes for a good business story. This book is not another description of accounting scandals. Instead it offers a history of ideas. Each chapter covers a controversial topic that emerged over the past century. Historical background and discussion of people involved give relevance to concepts discussed. The author shows how economics, finance, law and business customs contributed to accounting's development. Ideas presented come from a career spent working with accounting information.

History of Public Accounting in the United States

History of Public Accounting in the United States
Author: James Don Edwards
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2020-09-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000166996

This book, first published in 1988, is a readable, concise history of the accounting profession in the US from its beginnings to the late twentieth century. It examines the roots of the profession, how it developed, how its standards have evolved, and what social, economic and legal forces have shaped it. The chapters form a series of dramatic highlights, illustrative of the multifarious problems besetting a young profession, catapulted into prominence by the economic and social forces of the twentieth century.

Accounting for Slavery

Accounting for Slavery
Author: Caitlin Rosenthal
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674241657

A Five Books Best Economics Book of the Year A Politico Great Weekend Read “Absolutely compelling.” —Diane Coyle “The evolution of modern management is usually associated with good old-fashioned intelligence and ingenuity...But capitalism is not just about the free market; it was also built on the backs of slaves.” —Forbes The story of modern management generally looks to the factories of England and New England for its genesis. But after scouring through old accounting books, Caitlin Rosenthal discovered that Southern planter-capitalists practiced an early form of scientific management. They took meticulous notes, carefully recording daily profits and productivity, and subjected their slaves to experiments and incentive strategies comprised of rewards and brutal punishment. Challenging the traditional depiction of slavery as a barrier to innovation, Accounting for Slavery shows how elite planters turned their power over enslaved people into a productivity advantage. The result is a groundbreaking investigation of business practices in Southern and West Indian plantations and an essential contribution to our understanding of slavery’s relationship with capitalism. “Slavery in the United States was a business. A morally reprehensible—and very profitable business...Rosenthal argues that slaveholders...were using advanced management and accounting techniques long before their northern counterparts. Techniques that are still used by businesses today.” —Marketplace “Rosenthal pored over hundreds of account books from U.S. and West Indian plantations...She found that their owners employed advanced accounting and management tools, including depreciation and standardized efficiency metrics.” —Harvard Business Review

Accounting by the First Public Company

Accounting by the First Public Company
Author: Warwick Funnell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2013-11-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134747489

The United Dutch East India Company was the first public company, preceding the formation of the English East-India Company by over 40 years. Its fame as the first public company which heralded the transition from feudalism to modern capitalism and its remarkable financial success for nearly two centuries ensure its importance in the history of capitalism. Although a publicly owned, highly complex and diversified business, and commonly agreed to be the largest and most profitable business in the 17th century, throughout its existence the Dutch East-India Company never produced public accounts of its financial affairs which would have allowed investors to judge the performance of the Company. Its financial accounting, which changed little during its lifetime, was not designed as an aid to rational investment decision-making by communicating the Company’s financial performance but to be a means of promoting sound stewardship by senior management. This study examines the contributions of accounting to the remarkable success of the Dutch East-India Company and the influences on these accounting practices. From the time that the German economic historian Werner Sombart proposed that accounting techniques, most especially double-entry bookkeeping, were critical to the development of modern capitalism and the public company, historians and accounting scholars have debated the extent and importance of these contributions. The Dutch East-India Company was a capitalistic enterprise that had a public, permanent capital and its principal objective was to continually increase profit by reinvesting its returns in the business. Rather than the organisation and management of the Dutch East-India Company reflecting the perceived benefits of a particular bookkeeping method, the supremacy that it achieved and maintained in a very hazardous business at a time of recurring conflict between European states was a consequence of the practicalities of 17th century business and The Netherlands’ unique, threatening natural environment which shaped its social and political institutions.

Kautilya's Arthashastra

Kautilya's Arthashastra
Author: Kau?alya
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 8184950292

Kautilya, also known as Chanakya, is India s most illustrious political economist of all time. He regarded economic activity as the driving force behind the functioning of any political dispensation. In fact, he went to the extent of saying that revenue should take priority over the army because sustaining the army was possible out of a well-managed revenue system.Kautilya advocated limiting the taxation power of the State, having low rates of taxation, maintaining a gradual increase in taxation and most importantly devising a tax structure that ensured compliance. He strongly encouraged foreign trade, basing it on the premise that for a successful trade contract to be established, it had to be beneficial to all. He emphasised State control and investment in land, water and mining. Kautilya was a true statesman who bridged the gap between experience and vision. For Kautilya, good governance was paramount. He suggested built-in checks and balances in systems and procedures for the containment of malpractices. Many postulates of Kautilya s philosophy of political economy are applicable to contemporary times.

Historical Developments in the Accountancy Profession, Financial Reporting, and Accounting Theory

Historical Developments in the Accountancy Profession, Financial Reporting, and Accounting Theory
Author: C. Richard Baker
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1801178062

Historical Developments in the Accountancy Profession, Financial Reporting, and Accounting Theory contains ten manuscripts authored by C. Richard Baker during an academic career that spans four decades, picking up on various understudied threads of academic and professional initiatives over the past several hundred years.

‘Counting Black and White Beans’

‘Counting Black and White Beans’
Author: Anton Lewis
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2020-10-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1789734053

Across the US and the UK, few senior accountants exist in proportion to their white peers. This problem is overwhelmingly disregarded due to an inherent assumption of racial neutrality within the field of accountancy. This book unpacks the working experience of black accountants to highlight the existence of institutionalized racism.