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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.
List of 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.
