Henry Rand Hatfield

This book is a biographical study of the first full-time accounting professor in a US university. Henry Rand Hatfield (1866-1945) was the first dean of the Chicago business school and the second dean of the Berkeley business school, and he was long regarded as the "dean of accounting teachers everywhere". His two textbooks, "Modern Accounting" (1909) and "Accounting" (1927), were among the most respected reference works in the first half century, and they and his articles continue to be cited today. His textbooks and carefully crafted articles were veritable annotations on the accounting literature and drew extensively on accounting and legal authorities in the US and overseas. He exemplified a principled approach to accounting debate and discussion, and he skewered sloppy and imprecise terminology and shoddy thinking. He did not propound any grand theories but was instead an astute critic of the literature, a delectable writer, and, above all, a consummate scholar. Hatfield was an authority on early bookkeeping history, and his essay, "An Historical Defense of Bookkeeping", has long been one of the most celebrated articles in the US literature. Professor Basil Yamey has written a commentary expressly for the book on Hatfield as a historian of accounting and bookkeeping. Stephen Zeff began his research in the 1960s, when he was granted access to Hatfield's extensive files of correspondence, notes and papers, and he proceeded to interview, or correspond with, many of Hatfield's former colleagues and students. The author also drew on the archives at the Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and the University of California, as well as the records of the American Accounting Association, of which Hatfield was a founder and President. The book is rich in references to primary sources. Many of Hatfield's unpublished and previously published papers are reproduced in the book, which also contains a complete list of Hatfield's publications, including his more than 50 penetrating book reviews.

Philip D. Bougen This is a delightful book. It is what we have come to expect from Zeff: painstakingly researched, elegantly written and vastly informative. As someone who has been fortunate enough in my academic career to have intersected with Stephen Zeff on a number of occasions, as I read the book the comparison became apparent: the description of humanist, scholar, and accounting educator could be convincingly applied to the book's author. The British Accounting Review Michael J. Mumford, Lancaster University This is the definitive study of H.R. Hatfield, with some 300 pages of biography and review, and nearly 200 pages of Hatfield's own published and unpublished papers. Professor Zeff started writing this book in 1964, and it evidently became a labor of love. Accounting and Business Research Richard Vangermeersch, University of Rhode Island, USA Zeff has succeeded in producing an exemplary biography - a daunting task that took thirty-five years of intermittent effort to complete and stands as a reflection of his growth into a notable accounting biographer. Henry Rand Hatfield is a role model for accountants and academics in all fields because of his literacy, ethical standards, international perspective, wit, teaching style, humanity, and broad education, among other accomplishments. In Henry Rand Hatfield: Humanist, Scholar, and Accounting Educator, Zeff has managed to capture the stature and multifaceted talents of this fascinating subject. Business History Review Richard P. Brief This is a wonderful book. It was a delight to read. The book gives a valuable account of an interesting period in the development of accounting thought and the early history of business education, but, more importantly, Zeff's biography is a fascinating study of a highly intelligent, complex individual. The Accounting Review Marc Nikitin, University of New Orleans ...this book is more than a simple biography. It enables us to discover a part of the history of accounting in a country whose influence is this field is today preponderant. The European Review, Vol 10/4 This is the definitive study of H.R. Hatfield, with some 300 pages of biography and review, and nearly 200 pages of Hatfield's own published and unpublished papers. Accounting & Business Research, Vol 31 John Richard Edwards, Cardiff Business School Zeff's persistence is to be applauded, as is the final result. It is a very full autobiographical study... Accounting, Business & Financial History Professor O. Finley Graves The quality of the biography and the scholarship Zeff presents in this book are impeccable. ... Through this book, he whows how values and other historical forces have influenced accounting thought. President of the Academy of Accounting Historians and Professor of Accounting at Kansas State University, USA