The genesis of accountability: the West Point connections

Article Abstract:

The roots of the 'new managerialism' in US factories and businesses in the nineteenth century are examined. The written histories of US railroads and armories are also reconsidered. The influence in both of these fields of military and engineering graduates from the US Military Academy at West Point is also considered. These graduates represent and replicate the fastidious 'grammatocentric' and 'panoptic' human accountability systems in effect in that institution after 1817. The overall idea is to reconsider superficially rational-economic changes in accounting and accountability in a broader frame of references which explicates their development as parts of a general change in knowledge-power relations. Further consideration of the administrative and accounting records of railroads and armories of the time is suggested.

Railroads, Accounting and auditing, United States. Military Academy, Administrative responsibility, Armories

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Accounting and the examination: a genealogy of disciplinary power

Article Abstract:

A history of the development of accounting is related to historical events outside the accounting field, such as educational techniques from the late-medieval period forward, and certain 'modern' occurrences, including the building of the U.S. railroads. The interrelationships of education and accounting are reviewed historically in order to determine the proper role of accounting in modern society. The work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault is discussed in context of the accounting field; it is suggested that accounting and its rules and standards have historically been means of asserting social control.

Criticism and interpretation, Business mathematics, Foucault, Michel, Great Britain, Bookkeeping

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The Boulton & Watt case: the crux of alternative approaches to accounting history?

Article Abstract:

The British engineering firm Boulton and Watt was an innovator in the development of sophisticated accounting practices in the late 18th century and some believe that it was in the vanguard of modern management control. The history of accounting techniques at Boulton and Watt is studied, with particular emphasis on material and labour standards.

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