From Mellmott to Madoff: History in the (Re) Making

Abstract

History has never enjoyed a peaceful existence. There has been a constant struggle over the primacy of ideas. The tacit agenda of mainstream history is often to elevate the version of the victors and to defend the status quo. A few years ago, doc toral students attending an American Accounting Association (AAA) colloquium were informed by an eminent, tenured profes sor that nothing in The Accounting Review (TAR) older than five years was worth reading.1 Editors of TAR and the Journal of Accounting Research (JAR) did not always express such distain for past scholarship. JAR was a joint creation of the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics (LSE). The latter was dominated by historians such as Will Baxter and Harold Edey. Their gradu ate disciples came to dominate chair appointments in the U.K. and beyond. Most notable were Peter Bird, Sir Brian Carsberg, David Solomons, Robert Parker, Geoffrey Harcourt, and Tony Lowe.