Double Entry by Jane Gleeson-White
Filled with colourful 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 -- adapted 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 fuelled the Renaissance, enabled capitalism to flourish, and created the global economy. Kuznets and Keynes used it to formulate GDP, the measure of a nation's wealth. Yet double-entry accounting has had its failures. With the cost of sudden corporate collapses such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Lehman Brothers, and its disregard of environmental and human factors, the time may have come to rethink it for the twenty-first century.
Entertaining and informative * The Economist *
A lively history* The New Yorker *
Ms. Gleeson-White's narrative in "Double Entry" is clear and approachable. The complexities of accounting are lucidly presented. * Wall Street Journal *
A well-researched history * Management Today *
A thoughtful and multifaceted work of history, touching on subjects as diverse as Christianity, mathematics, company law and fine arts. * The Australian *
A lively history* The New Yorker *
Ms. Gleeson-White's narrative in "Double Entry" is clear and approachable. The complexities of accounting are lucidly presented. * Wall Street Journal *
A well-researched history * Management Today *
A thoughtful and multifaceted work of history, touching on subjects as diverse as Christianity, mathematics, company law and fine arts. * The Australian *
Jane Gleeson-White has worked as a writer and editor in Sydney and London since 1990. She has a Bachelor of Economics and an honours degree in English literature from the University of Sydney. She is the author of Classics (2005) and Australian Classics (2007).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781743311493 |
| ISBN 10 | 1743311494 |
| Title | Double Entry |
| Author | Jane Gleeson-White |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Allen & Unwin |
| Year published | 2013-05-02 |
| Number of pages | 304 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |