On the social history of accounting: The Bank Audit by Bruce Marshall

Abstract

The processes of social negotiation which sanction the elevated occupational authority of professions remain understudied. However, the conventionally ascribed complexity of professional services suggests the importance of more discursive mediums rather than objective evaluations of occupational competence. Thus, what might previously have been dismissed as mere professional ephemera may actually function as key signifiers in the development of image and status. It is within this context that Bruce Marshall's 1958 book The Bank Audit is reviewed. Authored by an accountant, this book is significant as a rare example of an “accounting novel” and for its often distinctive portrayal of accountants and their work. A call is made for accounting historians to enliven development of the social history of accounting by searching for and studying the expansive and eclectic range of texts and other sources which elucidate the often intriguing interface between this occupation and the broader society in which it is constituted.