This book, first published in 1988, examines accounting not as merely a technical process, nor as a technical process with social and political consequences, but as an activity which is both social and political in itself. It analyses the history of accounting and explores the complicated relationship between accounting and society.

1. Introduction 2. Understanding Cost and Management Accounting in its Social and Historical Context 3. Historical Introduction 4. The First World War 5. After the War: Reconstruction and Reality 6. The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants 7. Cost Accounting and Society 8. Conclusion