Review: Peter Campbell, Thomas Kaiser and Marissa Linton, eds, Conspiracy in the French Revolution, Manchester University Press: Manchester, 2007; 222 pp.; 9780719074028, £50.00 (hbk)
Abstract
Review Peter Campbell, Thomas Kaiser and Marissa Linton, eds, Conspiracy in the French Revolution, Manchester University Press: Manchester, 2007; 222 pp.; 9780719074028, £50.00 (hbk) SAGE Publications, Inc. 2009DOI: 10.1177/02656914090390040705 MichaelLynn Agnes Scott College Almost by definition, the idea of conspiracy evokes a sense of mysteriousness – images of cloaked figures lurking in dark alleyways or secret liaisons between important people with hidden agendas. Usually, these conspiracies represent problems; they are plots that require quick action on someone’s part so that they can be unmasked and defused, the plotters deci- sively dealt with. Alternatively, conspiracies sometimes have noble goals and lofty ambitions, thus becoming a necessary part of politics. In either case, concern about conspiracy and the existence of actual plots is a common element in history. Peter Campbell, Thomas Kaiser and Marissa Linton have collected a series of essays focusing on the end of the ancien régime and the French Revolution with an eye towards offering the first in-depth analysis of how plots and intrigues influenced the development of political culture during the revolutionary era. This period of history is replete with plots and the authors show how such conspiracies occu- pied a constant place in the mental