Intelligence, Espionage, and the Ethics of Surveillance in Defoe’s Writings
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23594870 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katherine Ellison (Illinois State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Pages | 382-399 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-18 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Oxford Handbook of Daniel Defoe (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198827177.013.22 |
| OpenAlex | W4389887362 |
| ISBN | 9780198827177 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 2 |
This chapter situates Daniel Defoe’s writings about ‘intelligence’ and ‘espionage’ in the contexts of developing practices and theories of secret service work and the writer’s own career as a political agent. The first section surveys ideas about intelligence and espionage inherited by Defoe and his contemporaries from Renaissance writers and secretaries of state. It then moves to Defoe’s career, under William III, Queen Anne, and George I, during which time he undertook extensive government work, as an anonymous writer, as a disperser of propaganda, and as a political operative, including on location in Edinburgh during the parliamentary debates leading to the ratification of the Anglo-Scottish Union in 1707. After 1714, Defoe worked as a counter-propagandist, managing and contributing to newspapers, attenuating their criticisms of the Whig ministry. In the final section, the essay turns to intelligence systems and networks in Defoe’s fictions.
Advertising · Art · Art history · Espionage · George (robot) · Government (linguistics) · Literature · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Ratification · Section (typography) · Sociology · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
|---|