Did Waldegrave Work? The Impact of Open Government upon British History
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12239122 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R J Aldrich (University of Nottingham, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1998 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 111-126 |
| Publication date | 1998-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Twentieth Century British History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0955-2359 • E-ISSN: 1477-4674 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/tcbh/9.1.111 |
| OpenAlex | W2163227506 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
The Impact of the waldegrave Initiative on Open Government upon British History is examined and placed within the wider framework of changes in Whitehall, which might be interpreted as a shift towards transparency, or alternatively towards more sophisticated ‘information control’. The areas of intelligence history, nuclear history and international history are examined in detail and used to suggest that while their broad contours remain largely unchanged, specific subjects that were once inaccessible can now be tackled. The mundane nature of some of the material hitherto withheld for exceptional periods sheds light not only on the period that it documents, but also on the absurd and fantastical secrecy of the government in the 1980s, which continued to keep eighteenth century records under lock and key, claiming their continued sensitivity. The workaday world of the Departmental Record Officer is considered and found to be suffering badly from the strains of under-resourcing The significant problems that are identified here, it is argued, will be exacerbated by the arrival of Freedom of Information Legislation
Economic history · Government (linguistics · Media studies · Political science · Sociology · Work (physics · Cultural History and Identity Formation · Engineering · History · Mechanical Engineering · Philosophy
The intelligence lobby before the intelligence lobby
‘A cuckoo in the diplomatic service nest’
The evolution of historical scholarship and the rise of the visible and accountable national security state
Intelligence and decolonization
Censorship, declassification and the history of end of empire in Central Africa
The UK Freedom of Information Act and social research
Government open data and transparency
Classified records and the archives
Closure periods for access to public records and archives. Comparative-historical analysis
The last forum of accountability? State secrecy, intelligence and freedom of information in the United Kingdom
L'accessibilité des archives historiques concernant la seconde guerre et l'immédiat après-guerre en Belgique
| Citations per year | 0.44 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2001 - 2024 (24) |
| Highly cited | No |