Books+ Search Results
Tracing the Shadow of Secrecy and Government Transparency in Eighteenth-Century France
Author
Title
Tracing the Shadow of Secrecy and Government Transparency in Eighteenth-Century France [electronic resource] / by Nicole Bauer.
ISBN
9783031122361
Edition
1st ed. 2023.
Publication
Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
Physical Description
1 online resource (IX, 228 p.) 1 illus.
Local Notes
Access is available to the Yale community.
Access and use
Access restricted by licensing agreement.
Summary
This book traces changing attitudes towards secrecy in eighteenth-century France, and explores the cultural origins of ideas surrounding government transparency. The idea of keeping secrets, both on the part of individuals and on the part of governments, came to be viewed with more suspicion as the century progressed. By the eve of the French Revolution, writers voicing concerns about corruption saw secrecy as part and parcel of despotism, and this shift went hand in hand with the rise of the idea of transparency. The author argues that the emphasis placed on government transparency, especially the mania for transparency that dominated the French Revolution, resulted from the surprising connections and confluence of changing attitudes towards honour, religious movements, rising nationalism, literature, and police practices. Exploring religious ideas that associated secrecy with darkness and wickedness, and proto-nationalist discourse that equated foreignness with secrecy, this book demonstrates how cultural shifts in eighteenth-century France influenced its politics. Covering the period of intense fear during the French Revolution and the paranoia of the Reign of Terror, the book highlights the complex interplay of culture and politics and provides insights into our attitudes towards secrecy today. Nicole Bauer is Assistant Professor of European History at the University of Tulsa in the USA. A cultural historian of early modern France, she is particularly interested in pulling threads from different directions to understand and uncover the cultural origins of political and social movements.
Variant and related titles
Springer ENIN.
Other formats
Printed edition:
Printed edition:
Printed edition:
Format
Books / Online
Language
English
Added to Catalog
February 22, 2023
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Creatures of Infamy: Lettres de cachet, Family Honor, and the Uses of Secrecy
Chapter 3: The Fate of Secrets in a Public Sphere: The Comte de Broglie and the Demise of the Secret du Roi
Chapter 4: Those Who Know Your Secrets: Jesuit Secrecy and the Proto-nationalism of the Jansenists
Chapter 5: "I Promise Never to Speak to Anyone": Polices Practices and the Bastille
Chapter 6: Desire, Dread, and the Grateful Dead: Bastille Cadavers and the Revolutionary Gothic Imaginary
Chapter 7: The Marat of Versailles: Transparency During and After the Terror
Chapter 8: Conclusion.
Subjects
Also listed under
SpringerLink (Online service)
Bookmark As
Citation
