The Culture of Secrecy: Britain, 1832-1998

by David Vincent

This is the first, comprehensive study of the culture of secrecy in modern British history. Accessibly written, it places current controversies over privacy and confidentiality, secrecy and openness, integrity and public trust, in the context of the development of the liberal state since 1832.

380 pages, Hardcover

First published March 4, 1999

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Reviews

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Very meticulously researched, yet still written in a straightforward style. Early chapters were the strongest; those on the later years (post-1911 Official Secrets Act) would benefit from some paring. In these later chapters especially, one can lose sight of larger sociocultural shifts amid all the Bills and Acts and White Papers-- there is never a clear climax, and thus the detail starts to feel quite repetitive. Props to Vincent for making a concerted effort to write about blue-collar lives as well as white-collar secrecy. The threads don't always fit seamlessly together, but the back and forth does offer some respite from the duller minutiae of parliamentary debates and reports. This is a very Britain-centric book, which might seem obvious except that there are flickers of enlightening comparison when the author reflects on how Britons saw their own culture of secrecy in relation to that of other places. I would have like more of this, and especially of the role of Britain's own empire in shaping the so-called domestic culture of secrecy (as Priya Satia does in Spies in Arabia). (The Suez Crisis is highlighted as a key moment, but analysis is fleeting.) I wasn't wholly convinced of any real British exceptionalism in the arena of secrecy--except perhaps as a figment of the British imagination--and a bit more global perspective might have done the trick.