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An International Meeting of American Accounting
Association
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Straw Men and Old Saws – an Evidence-Based Response to Sy & Tinker’s Critique of Accounting History |
Thomas N Tyson
St. John Fisher College
David Oldroyd
University of Newcastle Business School
Abstract: In a recent article in Accounting History, Sy and Tinker (2005) (S&T) critiqued accounting history for its support of “archivalism” and empiricism in light of irrefutable arguments against these “antiquarian epistemes.” While tempted to lambaste S&T’s article as social advocacy rather than history, we focus instead on more substantive questions. We initially summarize S&T’s essential arguments, although some appear contradictory in nature. We then discuss fundamental issues and genuine challenges to accounting history posed by the post-Kuhnian critique that S&T and others represent as well as the nature and purpose of historical inquiry. We next categorize accounting history journal articles that were published during the past three years (2003-2005) and use this evidence to evaluate the assertions S&T make about accounting history. We conclude that S&T’s critique is unjust especially when the topic areas and methodologies of the most recent accounting history articles are considered.