Phantom terror : the threat of revolution and the repression of liberty 1789-1848 /
Zamoyski, Adam,author.
The French Revolution and the blood-curdling violence it engendered terrified the ruling and propertied classes of Europe. Unable to grasp how such horrors could have come about, many concluded that it was the result of a devilish conspiracy hatched by Freemasons inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment with the aim of overthrowing the entire social order, along with the legal and religious principles it stood on. Others traced it back to the Reformation or the Knights Templar and ascribed even more sinister aims to it. Faced by this apparently occult threat, they resorted to repression on an unprecedented scale, expanding police and spy networks in the process. This compelling history, occasionally chilling and often hilarious, tells how the modern state evolved through the expansion of its organs of control, and holds urgent lessons for today.
Includes bibliographic references (pages 519-540) and index.
1. Exorcism -- 2. Fear -- 3. Contagion -- 4. War on Terror -- 5. Government by Alarm -- 6. Order -- 7. Peace -- 8. A Hundred Days -- 9. Intelligence -- 10. British Bogies -- 11. Moral Order -- 12. Mysticism -- 13. Teutomania -- 14. Suicide Terrorists -- 15. Corrosion -- 16.The Empire of Evil -- 17. Synagogues of Satan -- 18. Comité Directeur -- 19. The Duke of Texas -- 20. The Apostolate -- 21. Mutiny -- 22. Cleansing -- 23. Counter-Revolution -- 24. Jupiter Tonans -- 25. Scandals -- 26. Sewers -- 27. The China of Europe -- 28. A Mistake -- 29. Polonism -- 30. Satan on the Loose.
The French Revolution and the blood-curdling violence it engendered terrified the ruling and propertied classes of Europe. Unable to grasp how such horrors could have come about, many concluded that it was the result of a devilish conspiracy hatched by Freemasons inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment with the aim of overthrowing the entire social order, along with the legal and religious principles it stood on. Others traced it back to the Reformation or the Knights Templar and ascribed even more sinister aims to it. Faced by this apparently occult threat, they resorted to repression on an unprecedented scale, expanding police and spy networks in the process. This compelling history, occasionally chilling and often hilarious, tells how the modern state evolved through the expansion of its organs of control, and holds urgent lessons for today.
Political persecution
Revolutions