Secret service : British agents in France, 1792-1815 / Elizabeth Sparrow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sparrow, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Mary), 1926-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Secret service.

History.

France--Foreign relations--1789-1815.

France.

International relations.

France--Foreign relations--Great Britain.

Great Britain.

Great Britain--Foreign relations--France.

France--History--Revolution, 1789-1799--Secret service.

Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815--Secret service.

Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815.

Secret service--Great Britain.

Espionage, British--France--History--18th century.

Espionage, British--France--History--19th century.

Local Subjects:

Espionage, British--France--History--18th century.

Espionage, British--France--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

xvi, 459 pages : illustrations, map, portraits ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Rochester, NY : Boydell Press, 1999.

Summary:

Espionage is taken for granted today as the unacceptable but unavoidable veiled activity of modern statecraft. But how and why did it all begin? Elizabeth Sparrow's 'secret history' takes as its starting point the period immediately following the French revolution: a turbulent time, both on the Continent and in Britain, as the established order came under the threat of imminent social upheaval. To this point can be traced the true story of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and the origins of a British secret service, as Pitt's administration, reacted to the threat of a French-style revolution in Britain. Police surveillance was set up and a foreign secret service followed, to influence and undermine the French revolutionary government's actions. Once established, espionage activity intensified, finally achieving covert formal status in its infiltration of Napoleon's military machine.

Notes:

Map on lining papers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 417-423) and index.

ISBN:

0851157645

OCLC:

42002782