Reviewed by Walker Fesmire University of Michigan at Flint
This book of readings consists of a selection (16 of 68) from the works of Dicksee. The editor’s choice of articles covers Dicksee’s accounting career; the earliest selection chosen was published in 1893 while the final selection was published shortly before his death in 1932. The subjects represent the topics of concern to accountants in England between 1892 and 1932, and read like a presentday list. This work establishes Dicksee as one of the leading accounting theorists during the first onethird of this century. Many of his thoughts and ideas were decades ahead of his time. He treated the auditor’s responsibility for the discovery of fraud, the limitations of the auditor’s opinion, and the effects of technological changes. At the end of his career, he prepared a series of articles that he called “Popular Fallacies”. These addressed a number of philosophical issues concerning the general state of business and the related misconceptions that had developed about it.
The editor has prepared an Introduction which presents an excellent summarization of Dicksee’s career. He classified Dicksee’s contributions into three phase’s (not mutually exclusive) plus the Popular Fallacies group. In the first phase from 1892 to 1904, Dicksee treated the traditional subjects of auditing and financial accounting. During the second phase from 1905 to 1930, Dicksee had an interest in the area of information systems. The third phase he identified as overlapping part of phase two. From 1920 to 1930, Dicksee reconsidered some of the critical issues in financial accounting.
This reviewer felt as if he was listening to Dicksee in person as he read the various articles. His personality and thoughts came alive on the page. However, this reviewer was disappointed by physical organization of this work. All of the articles included were photocopies of originals. Many of the photocopies were of poof quality. Because of their quality, many were difficult to read. Several articles contained references to tables, charts, or graphs which were not included. The editor did not inform the reader as to why these items were omitted. This reviewer believes that the editor should have stated that it was his decision to omit the table, etc., or that they were not part of the originals. In addition, the book contains no page numbering. Irregular page numbering appears but it is the page numbering of the originals. The editor, in a bibliography at the beginning of the book, lists all of Dicksee’s publications in chronological order. For the articles selected, the editor does not cite the date, issue, or journal from which the article was taken nor does he crossreference it to the bibliography. In addition, the Introduction contains many quotes from Dicksee’s work with only vague reference to the specific works and the page(s) that the quote was taken from. Finally, this reviewer believes that the editor could have contributed significantly if he had added a brief introductory comment to each article explaining why he included it and how this article contributed to an understanding of Dicksee.
In summary, the editor made excellent selections which presented Dicksee well but the physical organization of the book was poor.
