The Past, Present, and Future of Accounting History

This paper seeks to establish statistically and explain the past, present, and likely future of accounting history. The article is based on a recently constructed database of publications in accounting history from 1989 to 2016. The data reveal that the output of accounting history articles grew very rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s attributed to the increased demand from the profession for accountancy teaching in universities, out of which emerged a relatively small number of accountancy academics who took an interest in history. From the turn of the millennium the output of articles has gone into a slow secular decline largely because the growth of accountancy teaching at universities has stalled. If the downward trend continues, the viability of the discipline is threatened. However, action might be taken at least to slow the “death rattle” of accounting history feared by Radcliffe; and some suggestions for doing so are made.