Felix Martin
Rise of the Bean-Counters
The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Making and Breaking of Nations
By Jacob Soll
Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 276pp £20 order from our bookshop
Such is the reputation of accounting among the general public – as tedious, pedantic, incomprehensible and, in a word, boring – that many people will run a mile when they hear that a new book about financial book-keeping and its role in economic and political history has been published. They will be making a big mistake. Financial accounting is at the heart not only of capitalism but also of any well-functioning government. Jacob Soll’s The Reckoning is a detailed and versatile demonstration of this important historical truth, written by one of the world’s pre-eminent experts.
‘The banker’, wrote Joseph Schumpeter in his Theory of Economic Development, ‘is the ephor of the exchange economy.’ The analogy is obscure for modern readers, but it is a good one, not least because it captures precisely the intimate connection between financial
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
My latest children's round up for @Lit_Review feat. @LissaKEvans WISHED, @MissDePlume SMALL!, @skyemc_kenna's HEDGWITCH, @emmac2603 ESCAPE... @PhilipPullman's IMAGINATION...
https://literaryreview.co.uk/there-be-giants
Very happy to make my @Lit_Review debut with a review of @WillWiles "The Last Blade Priest" a fast-paced story set in an immersive world with nuanced inter-group dynamics and humane characters
https://literaryreview.co.uk/mountain-duel
I have a review of Hugh Brody’s powerful memoir Landscapes of Silence in the latest @Lit_Review https://literaryreview.co.uk/cold-comforts-3