Abstract

This chapter builds upon accounting history research to show how management has served any types of purposes over centuries, some being laudable and others raising moral and ethical questions. When revealed by God to mankind, accounting appeared as a practical and religious way of solving world dualism. Soul accounting was aimed at reconciling world dualism. Capitalist accounting served as a tool of economic rationality as bureaucracies arose. War accounting was a tool associated with military strategy to win a war. But also, management accounting served dark purposes: rationality and efficiency in the service of the Shoah and colonial oppression.