@article{1453433,
      recid = {1453433},
      author = {Bauer, Nicole,},
      title = {Tracing the shadow of secrecy and government transparency  in Eighteenth-Century France /},
      pages = {1 online resource (233 pages)},
      note = {Description based upon print version of record.},
      abstract = {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.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1453433},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12236-1},
}