Price: $17.99 - $15.52
(as of Jan 10, 2025 21:46:39 UTC – Details)
“Lively history. . . . Show[s] double entry’s role in the creation of the accounting profession, and even of capitalism itself.”―The New Yorker
Filled with colorful characters and history, Double Entry takes us from the ancient origins of accounting in Mesopotamia to the frontiers of modern finance. At the heart of the story is double-entry bookkeeping: the first system that allowed merchants to actually measure the worth of their businesses. Luca Pacioli―monk, mathematician, alchemist, and friend of Leonardo da Vinci―incorporated Arabic mathematics to formulate a system that could work across all trades and nations. As Jane Gleeson-White reveals, double-entry accounting was nothing short of revolutionary: it fueled the Renaissance, enabled capitalism to flourish, and created the global economy. John Maynard Keynes would use it to calculate GDP, the measure of a nation’s wealth. Yet double-entry accounting has had its failures. With the costs of sudden corporate collapses such as Enron and Lehman Brothers, and its disregard of environmental and human costs, the time may have come to re-create it for the future.
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (October 7, 2013)
Language : English
Paperback : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 0393346595
ISBN-13 : 978-0393346596
Item Weight : 8.8 ounces
Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
Customers say
Customers find the book a good mix of history and accounting. They describe it as an interesting, fun read that provides useful information about double-entry accounting. The research is well-received, providing valuable insights into the history of merchants and mathematics. Readers appreciate the thought-provoking narrative and clear writing style. Overall, they find the book informative and insightful, providing a unique perspective on how the double-entry system has shaped the world.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
