On Edwards’ A history of corporate financial reporting in Britain

This paper discusses Edwards’ monograph A History of Corporate Financial Reporting in Britain (2019), drawing comparisons with the 1989 edition. Apart from a general overview and appreciation of the book, the paper discusses two aspects in more detail. It is argued that the focus on Britain, while justified, leads to an understatement of important elements of Britain's interaction with the outside world. It is also argued that, despite the book's professed adoption of agency theory as a theoretical lens, its approach is better characterised as an inductive approach in which the historical record itself offers the main issues, concepts and viewpoints out of which the historical narrative is constructed.