The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has published a history of XBRL. The article, The story of our new language; Personalities, cultures, and politics combine to create a common, global language for business can be downloaded at this URL.
The AICPA describes the document:
This paper, based on a chronicle of Charles Hoffman and Louis Matherne, documents the story of XBRL told from the perspectives of many key influencers of XBRL throughout its history. The AICPA interviewed many of the XBRL contributors in order to encapsulate the journey from its original development to the creation of a consortium of over 550 organizations who work together to continue to build a common language for business reporting and support its adoption.