Accounting history is a lot more exciting than you realize. Historian and MacArthur Fellow Jacob Soll, author of The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations, discusses the vital role accounting played in the French and American revolutions.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why accounting was once considered essential knowledge for courtiers and statesmen.
• How a celebrity accountant triggered the French Revolution.
• Why Benjamin Franklin may have written his autobiography in a ledger book.
• What happens in eras when financial literacy is low and accounting isn’t valued.

Play the episode below: