Doing Accounting History

This is a collection of eleven essays authored by prominent accounting historians and designed to aid potential as well as experienced researchers in the methodologies and resources available for scholarly work in accounting history. The project, of which this book is the end product, has the full endorsement and backing of the Academy of Accounting Historians. Chapters on resources include the finding and utilization of archival materials (including ancient forms); the growing importance of the Internet in historical research and the Accounting Research Database as a vital, contemporary finding aid; the possibilities for joint venturing with accounting practitioners and their organizations; and the pivotal influence and immediacy of oral history. Methodological chapters explore the advantages and pitfalls of archival research; the synergistic relationships that exist between accounting and economic history, including business history and capital-markets research; the techniques for doing biography; and the issues involved in writing to historical paradigms.