Abstract
It is often said that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Well, it turns out that in this case it may well be that you can. A quick read of the back cover promises a voyage through the main accounting concepts, from the fifteenth century until the present-day, provided by over 80 specialists in humanities and social sciences (law, economics, management, history, political sciences, and sociology). While the review of a dictionary may be considered beyond the remit of a traditional book review, the project nevertheless relates to the publication of an important national dictionary and thus constitutes a key source of knowledge in the accounting history community.
With that promise in my mind, I flicked through the pages and discovered a very engaging book, written in the French language, which is likely to interest a wide range of readers. From the non-specialists interested in the technical story of accounting terms, to undergraduate and graduate students, professionals of accounting curious about the etymology and the origin of the accounting expressions currently in use, to the most accomplished connoisseur in search perhaps of new ideas, inspiration and generally the ‘intellectual pleasure of discovery’ (p. 20), all will find suitable material in the book.
The book’s main strength lies in its broad scope. It is structured in 22 sections, each comprising a varied number of short essays, focusing on auditing, budgeting, management accounting and control, accounting in specific activities and geographical locations, public and private accounting, accounting concepts, accounting regulations, dividends, taxation, the accounting profession, accounting regulatory bodies, accounting techniques, accounting theories and principles – to name just a few. It may be argued that the book is incomplete, in the sense that it has left out this or that important concept or subject, that certain topics were given more consideration than others, but I suppose that is a risk always implicit in a project like this.
Given its breadth, the book is useful for teaching and learning in different areas. Its reading is made easy by the fact that each essay is short, thus quick to read, providing a useful starting point for deeper analyses of a given topic. To me, the marked diversity of subjects present in this book demonstrates that accounting is involved in practically every human activity, and may be studied from a plethora of different perspectives.
One other strength of this book is the fact that it gathers authors from different areas of research, not only affiliated with institutions geographically located in France (as expected) but also in Belgium, Canada, Lebanon, Morocco, Russia and the USA. Also, while most of the essays concern French topics, in some cases other locations are the subject of study. For example, there are essays on Guadeloupe (pp. 123–125), Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan (pp. 301–304), Romania (pp. 432–435), Italy (pp. 443–447), and England (pp. 468–470). The essays are founded mostly in French sources, but some international references are also to be found, written in English, German or Russian. Overall, the book covers topics from the 15th century on, although there are a few references to earlier periods. For example, the essay in the section on Dividends (pp. 219–220), traces the origins of the concept to the year 1132.
In my view, this is a valuable book to stimulate interest in accounting, specifically but not only in a French setting. As an accounting lecturer I am occasionally bound to deal with what seems to have become a hallmark of accounting students – boredom. I have found that in such cases a good solution is to attract their attention by showing how accounting can be useful, even entertaining. I often try to tell them the stories behind the numbers, to acknowledge the human side always present in accounting entries and documents, and so far I have been taking examples from my own research. Having read this book, I am now able to enrich my own examples with other cases, highlighting similarities and differences. Of course, this may be questioned as a lecturing strategy, but in my case it has been useful more than once. In some ways, this is what this book does: it deals with serious topics, but at the same time and to a certain extent entertains the reader, telling different stories in an engaging way. By highlighting the historical and social dimension of accounting and the role it has been playing in society for many centuries, this book contributes to a richer understanding of what is, still today, generally regarded by many as a mere arid technique.
Designating the more illustrative essays would be a difficult, and to a certain extent unfair task, given the broad scope of topics and time frames. I prefer to say that during my read I have made notes in some of the essays, signalling them as possible future research topics or simply things I want to know more about. Naturally, this selection depends on what our affinities as researchers are, or simply what appeals to us and our curiosity. Overall, I can safely say that the book delivers what it promises, and it is certainly an enriching book for scholars as well as for undergraduate and graduate students.
The only disadvantage of note relates to the writing of the volume in French. I have nothing against the French language, and this review provided a welcome opportunity to revisit a language which I do not, unfortunately, use on a daily basis. Although ‘French is the native language in several European countries, parts of North America, and is widely spoken in Africa’ (Gomes, Giovannoni, Gutiérrez-Hidalgo and Zimnovitch, 2015: 191), it is unquestionable that in academic life we are destined to combine the use of our first language (in my case, Portuguese) with English. Whether we like it or not ‘English has now become the international lingua franca, not only in accounting, but also in science and academe in general’ (Evans, 2010: 452). Indeed, ‘publishing in English is highly recommended, if not mandatory. The pressures to publish in English are strong and researchers feel these pressures in their daily lives as academics’ (Gomes et al., 2015: 191). Combining this unavoidable fact, with the circumstance that the book represents an important national dictionary, and a key source of knowledge in the accounting history community, especially in a French setting, perhaps an English translation might be considered in the future. Meanwhile, the book is likely to reach only a very limited audience, despite its significance and quality. For those able to understand the language of Molière, the book is certainly useful and quite an enjoyable read.