UNITED KINGDOM

Overviews

Intelligence-Related Materials

M - Z

Porter, Bernard. "The Historiography of the Early Special Branch." Intelligence and National Security 1, no. 3 (Sep. 1986): 381-394.

Porter notes that the official files of the Special Branch prior to 1914 have been destroyed. However, a large volume of material on early Special Branch activities is available in the Home Office files at the Public Record Office. The author has little to say positive about previous writing on the Special Branch (interestingly, the publication of his The Rise of the Special Branch was pending at the time). He is particularly cutting with regard to Rupert Allason's The Branch (1983).

Porter, Bernard. The Origins of the Vigilant State: The London Metropolitan Police Special Branch before the First World War. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987.

Petrow, I&NS 3.4, lauds this book as "exemplary in its wide research, close attention to context, lucid style and willingness to tackle large issues and to speculate on limited evidence."

Porter, Bernard. Plots and Paranoia: A History of Political Espionage in Britain, 1790-1988. London: Unwin Hyman, 1989. London: Routledge, 1992

Clark comment: The paranoia in the text of this book, if not in the title, is the author's, who equates state security with an oppressive and repressive regime. Little consideration is given to the context within which modern security concerns exist. However, his discussion of the years prior to World War I is worth reading.

Surveillant 2.6 sees Plots and Paranoia as a "[d]etailed, scholarly history." In some ways, this is "an admirable and important book; however, it has some serious limitations, or rather its author does, stemming from his self-admitted, deep-seated prejudices against the concepts of intelligence and state security."

To Popplewell, I&NS 6.1, Porter's "research is excellent, and the book is packed with stimulating, often provocative observations." Nevertheless, his strongest arguments about the repressiveness of the modern British state "revolve around the 'Wilson plot' which Peter Wright has now admitted was a fabrication."

Rogers, Ann. Secrecy and Power in the British State: A History of the Official Secrets Act. London: Pluto, 1997.

Gill, I&NS 13.4, finds this work to be "very disappointing," with a "highly problematic" theoretical framework and a "sometimes confusing" analysis. The reviewer is left with "the feeling that the research on which this [book] was based was rather shallow."

Thomas, Rosamund M. Espionage and Secrecy: The Official Secrets Acts 1911-1989 of the United Kingdom. London and New York: Routledge, 1991.

Clark comment: This book was the winner of the National Intelligence Study Center Award for Best Foreign Author in 1991.

Surveillant 1.5 describes Espionage and Secrecy as a "look at the criminal law of Official Secrets." Houston, FILS 2.4, says that Espionage and Secrecy contains an "enormous amount of material.... [E]very page has to be read with care."

According to Aldrich, I&NS 9.2, "[i]t is in discussing Section 1 [of the Official Secrets Act] that the book is perhaps strongest." Otherwise, it is "rather disappointing.... [The] contents are largely restricted to an unfortunately narrow technical commentary, set against the background of the rules of criminal law and evidence."

Thomas' book is also reviewed in NSLR, Apr. 1992, p. 5.

Thurlow, Richard C. The Secret State: British Internal Security in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1994.

According to Stern, FA 74.3, Thurlow "relates that most of the time British authorities tried to strike a balance between the assumed needs of the state and the historical rights of the citizen. A sketchy if suggestive book."

Surveillant 4.3 comments that "Thurlow has conducted intensive and widespread research in private and public archives, and on documents which have recently been released."

For Griffith, I&NS 11.2, The Secret State is "a useful collection of many events strung together in chronological order until 1945 and then disintegrating somewhat."

Rogers, Political Studies 44.4, shares this judgment, noting that the author "is at his best in the period up to 1945." In fact, this is "the best introductory account of that period yet available." Nevertheless, the lack of sources for the period after World War II means that "the book cannot maintain its aim of a consistent history of the entire period covered."

Vincent, David. The Culture of Secrecy: Britain 1832-1998. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

According to Gill, I&NS 15.3, the author concentrates "on state practices, in particular the role of the civil service, interception of communications and the impact of welfare policies on privacy." The reviewer sees this work as "well-written, [with] each chapter end[ing] with some vignette of the period that encompasses [his] themes."

Weinberger, Barbara. Keeping the Peace? Policing Strikes in Britain, 1906-1926. New York & Oxford: Berg, 1991.

Porter, I&NS 7.2, finds that this book offers "a great deal of insight into the all-important context of what in retrospect appears a vital stage in British intelligence history in the domestic field."

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