The purpose of the paper is to present opinions on history of management accounting deve-
lopment presented by Johnson and Kaplan on the background of traditional and alternative views.
Based on the analysis of main opinions on management accounting history presented in the paper,
the change in the scope of views on management accounting history can be seen. The perception
of the management accounting history has changed from fairly simple and seeing management
accounting in isolation to more complex and holistic. Generalizing, cost and management
accounting history is necessary for understanding of current practice of cost and management
accounting and changes which have taken place in these disciplines from the end of the XX
century
