Secret Service: British Agents in France, 1792-1815 - Hardcover

Sparrow, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0851157645 ISBN 13: 9780851157641

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc, 1999

Synopsis

Something rare in the study of a period or a subject: a genuinely substantial addition to knowledge, of a kind that will henceforth need to be taken fully into account in any study of the British conduct of the great French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. JOHN EHRMAN A tour de force of research, an essential document for future students of the subject. JOHN LE CARRÉ Elizabeth Sparrow traces the origins of the British secret service to the turbulent aftermath of the French revolution, when Pitt's government, concerned to forestall civil unrest in England, set uppolice surveillance to counteract immigration and sedition. Close study of hitherto unknown Aliens Office documents reveals the expansion of this activity into a foreign secret service, the world of the Scarlet Pimpernel, drawing on an international intelligentsia to infiltrate the French revolutionary government and subsequently, as his domination of Europe seemed ever more certain, Napoleon's military machine. ELIZABETH SPARROW is an independent scholar, author of a number of articles on the early history of the British secret service.

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Review:

The whole history of the world war against revolutionary and Napoleonic France now has to be rewritten... a fine piece of secret service history and a most readable account of human beings under pressure. SPECTATOR (M R D Foot) A tour de force of research, an essential document for future students of the subject. JOHN LE CARRÉBy tracking down a secret-service archive tucked away...for nearly 200 years she can boast a stunning coup. SUNDAY TIMES Better than fiction... fascinating, first ever account of early days in the Secret Service... open(s) up this vast, undiscovered continent in our history. OLDIE Sparrow has done an exceptional job of tracing documents in many archives and reconstructing a story hitherto largely unknown, by piecing these together and brilliantly (and judiciously) reading between the lines.... A conspicuous achievement and a valuable contribution to our knowledge of this period as well as of the British secret service, ALBION A study of clandestine operations and subversion... a major work. RUSI JOURNAL

About this edition

• Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0851157645
• ISBN 13: 9780851157641
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 459