The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims

by R.J. Stove

The terms "Gestapo" and "KGB" have taken on an ominous meaning in every modern language, and the apparatus behind them inspires universal terror. But while there are many books about espionage, until now very little has been written about the history of secret policing, which played such a grim role in the totalitarian movements of the twentieth century.

Robert J. Stove begins his story of how secret police became a central institution of modern life with Sir Francis Walsingham, spymaster to Elizabeth I of England who created a network of secret agents and assassins to subvert the Queen's Catholic opponents. He concludes with a fascinating portrait of J. Edgar Hoover, whose surveillance of "enemies within" put American democracy to the test.

At the heart of The Unsleeping Eye is a provocative account of how secret police helped build and sustain the modern totalitarian state. Joseph Fouche, Napoleon's minister of police, made surveillance and informing into an art form ("Where are are three," Fouche once said, "I always have one listening") and coupled spying with propaganda techniques that made it doubly effective. Stove chronicles the development of domestic surveillance in Russia, from the time of Ivan the Terrible to its final refinement under Stalin, who brought Lenin's ideal of "organized terror" to perfection in collaboration with his brutal head of secret police, Lavrenti Beria. ("You bring me the man," Beria once said chillingly, "and I'll find you the crime.") He also shows how the Gestapo and other police organizations led by demented individuals like Heinrich Himmler defined the essence of Nazism, part of which was Himmler's deluded notion that "the members of the Gestapo are men with human kindness, human hearts, and absolute rightness."

The inside story of the secret policemen who defined the state of their art, The Unsleeping Eye takes us into the darkest corners of government. It is a narrative filled with forceful personalities and unsettling anecdotes, which leaves us wondering about the brave new worlds of manipulation and terror that may await us.

Genres: History, Politics

318 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Evan Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am almost embarrassed to say I like this book as much as I did. How fond of a book that has Himmler on the cover can you really be? The writing style is so chatty as to almost make you doubt the veracity of the facts, but the narrative is a pleasure to read. Beyond the usual Nazi and Communist suspects, Stove interestingly adds J. Edgar Hoover and some relative unknowns like Fouche, whom Stalin apparently admired a great deal. As the author notes, the topic is relatively unexplored and Stove offers a superbly enjoyable introduction to a topical and relevant bit of history. His thoughts on MLK Jr. and JFK are a bit over the top, so much so that in parts reading the book reminded me of listening to a crabby uncle, one with great stories, but some opinions that seemed a little daft and unsuitable for company.

[The American Conservative]

'Given 20th-century scholarship’s interest in all things totalitarian, it is more than a bit surprising that there exists no general survey of one of modern tyranny’s pivotal institutions: the secret police. At least there wasn’t one until Robert J. Stove, a versatile Australian critic, stepped forward to dispel the silence. The result is The Unsleeping Eye, an elegant volume of roughly chronological vignettes drawn from the all-too-thick catalogue of state-sponsored domestic surveillance. As narrative history, it makes for an unfailingly intriguing read. As a lesson in human nature, it provides a chilling warning against complacency in freedom.'

Read the full review, "The Knock at the Door," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...