Melding evolutionary theory and both animal and human ethology together with close, descriptive historical research on a typical Tuscan village in the seventeenth century, Hanlon explains the good reasons individuals had for behaving in ways that now seem strange to us. This fascinating study springs from the conviction that the building blocks of human life are universal: hierarchy and political participation; co-operation and competition, reproduction, invention, and adaptation. The author argues, however, that individual emotions, thought processes, and social predicaments are always set in specific times and places.

This book examines the way in which professional work - specifically accountancy - has been affected by the changes within the global economy over the last twenty years. It examines the commercialisation of accountancy, finding it directly related to the shift by capital away from the consensus it had entered into with labour during the post-war boom. The book argues that this transformation polarised the class structure of the advanced economies and seeks to explain the impact this transformation has had on the socialisation and promotional processes currently experienced by one group of professionals who have benefited from this change. In doing so, it puts forward a coherent explanation for the loss of auditor independnece and hence to the increase in auditing failures. The book also argues that what accountancy has experienced may increasingly emerge in other professions including medicine, law and teaching, as governments seek to expose them to market forces.

Melding evolutionary theory and both animal and human ethology together with close, descriptive historical research on a typical Tuscan village in the Seventeenth century, Hanlon explains the good reasons individuals had for behaving in ways that now seem strange to us.