Reviewed by R. Eugene Bryson, Jr. University of Alabama in Huntsville

This book is a recent addition to the Arno Press collection entitled Dimensions of Accounting Theory and Practice. The purpose of this volume is to provide accounting historians with an essential research tool: the bibliography. Reproduced here are eight bibliographies which have long been out of print or otherwise difficult to obtain. In addition, a previously unpublished bibliography by the editor is included.

Due to the language problem, three of the bibliographies in this volume will be of limited value to many researchers. J. Hagers’ Bouwstoffen Voor de Geschiedenis van het boekhouden in de Ne-derland (Materials for the History of Bookkeeping in the Netherlands) is a bibliography of pre-20th century materials in Dutch. A more recent bibliography, Zur Geschichte der Rechnungslegung im engeren deutschsprachigen Raum (on the History of Accounting in German-speaking countries), is basically a catalogue of bookkeeping texts and accounting records. Gonzalez Fernando’s Biblio-graphia covers mainly pre-20th century accounting history and in-cludes items in Italian, English, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Czech, and Latin.

Two bibliographies by H. W. Thompson (a former Librarian of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) list books on accounting in English, published between 1543 and 1800, as well as books in other languages covering the period 1494-1750. The coverage of this pair of compilations is remarkably extensive, including, for example, all of the known works of Luca Pacioli.

The remainder of Parker’s book consists of four bibliographies printed entirely in English. The annotated bibliography by Marc J. and Joanne B. Epstein is unique in that it is specialized, listing only works dealing with the relationship between scientific management and standard costing prior to 1920. The other three selections represent an attempt by the editor to provide an updated bibliography on all aspects of accounting history. The last item in the book takes the bibliography to 1979.

This book will be beneficial to students of all aspects of accounting history and should be a “must” for any university library. The recognition of the need for more specialized bibliographies is particularly welcome.