A History of Accountancy in the United States: The Cultural Significance of Accounting

Historical Perspectives on Business Enterprise

by Gary John Previts

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 the 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.

The authors bring readers up to date by capturing the research done during the fifteen years since the book's initial publication. They have also reconsidered their earlier material—for which they won the Hourglass Award of the Academy of Accounting Historians—especially their discussion of the relationship between developments in accounting and developments in society at large. The publication of this revised and expanded edition of A History of Accountancy in the United States makes available once again an essential text.

Genres: History

577 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1979