If more than welcome in intent, Fleischman and Tyson\u27s article Archival Researchers: An Endangered Species? [1997] prompted for me another question, With friends like this, . . . ?. It is a sad commentary on our field if their contributions are so apt to be minimalized that it may embarras[s] mainly descriptive accounting historians [Fleischman and Tyson (F&T), 1997, pp. 102, 102 fn.] to be so cited. It is probably not coincidental that other accounting scholars are likely to deem historical study more intellectual the more it is interpretive in a mode intellectualist. In any case, as an unembarrassed predominantly descriptive author I challenge the assumptions made that we as a class have a [less] theoretical bent than other historians and (by declared relativists) are prone to overstating the objectiv[ity] of our work [F&T, 1997, pp. 97, 102 (quoted)]. Follow-up conciliatory remarks [F&T, 1997, pp. 103-105] do not offset a gratuitous depreciation that has more broadly infected express Accounting Historians Journal (AHJ) editorial policy
