The Popish Plot
A Case Study in the Political History of Fear
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3130043 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeffrey Collins (0000-0002-9065-5566, Queen's University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 95 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-37 |
| Publication date | 2023-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Modern History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-2801 • E-ISSN: 1537-5358 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/723594 |
| OpenAlex | W4361250878 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 29 |
This article places the Popish Plot of 1678–81 into two fresh historiographical frames: the history of emotions, and the history of early modern conspiracy theorizing. It argues that conventional readings of the plot uncritically echo contemporary sources, many of which presented it as a conspiracy of elite insiders. These interpretations rely on implicit, misleading accounts of the emotional history of the plot, according to which the fear or panic generated by the event was confined to a disempowered populace, which was in turn manipulated by dispassionate power holders. The article argues that the rhetoric surrounding the plot found in the surviving archive reflected the “emotional regime” of the era, but that this performative rhetoric failed to capture the actual dynamics of the Popish Plot and obscures our understanding of the popular agency that propelled it. The disjunction between the emotional norms of the era and the lived experience of the plot encouraged rampant conspiracy theorizing. This case study is intended to prompt some broader rethinking of the roles that conspiracy theorizing, and the presumptions about emotions and agency that inform conspiracy theories, play in moments of political crisis both past and current
Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy) · Archaeology · Art · Elite · Framing (construction) · Historiography · Performative utterance · Plot (graphics) · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Social science · Sociology · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · History of Emotions Research · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
The ideological origins of the American Revolution.
Interpreting the French Revolution
Inferior Politics
The Navigation of Feeling
Fear
Worrying about Emotions in History
The Pope-Burning Processions of 1679, 1680 and 1681
The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
Opposition to Anti-Popery in Restoration England
Constructing Discord
The Pope‐burning Processions of the Late Seventeenth Century
The Origin of Titus Oates' Story
Conscience and Context
The Rise of Edward Colman
II. The Acquittal of Sir George Wakeman
Interpreting the Terror
Terror, Trauma and the 'Young Marx' Explanation of Jacobin Politics
The History of Emotions
Petitioning and the Political Theorists
The Theory and Practice of Denunciation in the French Revolution
Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style
Petitions and the 'Invention' of Public Opinion in the English Revolution
Against Constructionism
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |