About the Author

Jane Gleeson-White has worked as a writer and editor in Sydney and London since 1990. She has a Bachelor of Economics and an honours degree in English literature from the University of Sydney. She is the author of Classics (2005) and Australian Classics (2007).

Reviews

Starred review. ...[L]ively and elegantly written account of the history of double-entry bookkeeping.... This dynamic examination of the impact and legacy of double-entry bookkeeping is sure to appeal to those in the accounting profession, business leaders, and history buffs, and will likely become required reading in business school curricula.

A stimulating approach that presents a compelling outline for further detailed review.

Though a history of accounting might sound like dry reading, that is not the case in this narrative of the birth of double-entry bookkeeping in 15th-century Venice. Gleeson-White (Australian Classics: 50 Great Writers and Their Celebrated Works) tells the story of double-entry bookkeeping to show the historical importance of keeping accounts, not only of cash and profits but also of resources. She begins with Italian friar and mathematician Luca Pacioli (1445-1517) and the treatise in which he first codified the concept. His process survived basically unchanged until the Industrial Revolution, when it was tested by the rise of the corporation, which increased demands on record keeping. Gleeson-White tracks double-entry bookkeeping all the way through the economic crisis of 2008 and explains current trends to create more qualitative measures that rate a country or company's worth. -VERDICT With little mathematics or accounting described in its pages, this is not a technical work. The book instead explains how accounting, a natural human instinct, became a profession. Recommended for readers interested in the origins of modern accounting and how that history relates to the recent financial near collapse.-Elizabeth Nelson, Honeywell UOP Lib., Des Plaines, IL (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Starred review. ...[L]ively and elegantly written account of the history of double-entry bookkeeping.... This dynamic examination of the impact and legacy of double-entry bookkeeping is sure to appeal to those in the accounting profession, business leaders, and history buffs, and will likely become required reading in business school curricula.
A stimulating approach that presents a compelling outline for further detailed review.