Accounting through the Eyes of a Witness, 1973–2022

It is a great pleasure and privilege to offer this reflection piece for publication in the Accounting Historians Journal on the 50th anniversary of The Academy of Accounting Historians (hereafter, “the Academy”), formed in 1973 under the leadership of Gary John Previts, who became the Academy’s first president. The Academy was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in the U.S. State of Alabama and was registered on December 28, 1973 (see, for instance, Coffman, Roberts, and Previts 1989, 1998; Coffman, Lazdowski, and Previts 2014; Carnegie and Rodrigues 2007). As stated by Carnegie and Rodrigues (2007, 455), the Academy “is the largest association of accounting historians…and is the prime membership organisation of accounting historians around the world” and in 2016 became a section of the American Accounting Association (AAA).