"the Roaring Nineties": A Comment on the State of Accounting History in the United States (Point/Counterpoint‪)‬

Abstract: This comment on a recent contribution by Fleischman and Radcliffe [2005], entitled "The Roaring Nineties: Accounting History Comes of Age," specifically deals with their cautionary comments on the general condition of accounting history research in the U.S. around the close of that decade. The author contends that public interest in accounting's past is currently strong, especially following the recent corporate scandals and audit failures in the U.S., and points out that accounting history research projects which are of relevance to policy makers and regulators are likely to be both funded and, accordingly, recognized. Dick Fleischman and Vaughan Radcliffe have rendered a timely, interesting, and well-written account of an action-packed decade in accounting history research and publication which has been captured by the colorful title "The Roaring Nineties: Accounting History Comes of Age" [Fleischman and Radcliffe, 2005]. Readers of this contribution gain a strong sense that accounting history, as a field of scholarly endeavor, is more popular than ever before. Indeed, the authors stated, "it was only in the last decade of the 20th century that a substantial expansion and maturation of its research agenda occurred" [Fleischman and Radcliffe, 2005, p. 61; see also, Walker, 2005]. The underlying level of enthusiasm in the field, as is manifest within the article itself, is equally evident in recognizing the fact that this contribution appeared in the Accounting Historians Journal within five years after the end of "the roaring nineties" (1991 to 2000).