Synopses & Reviews
For the ruling and propertied classes of the late eighteenth century, the years following the French Revolution were characterized by intense anxiety. Monarchs and their courtiers lived in constant fear of rebellion, convinced that their powerand their headswere at risk. Driven by paranoia, they chose to fight back against every threat and insurgency, whether real or merely perceived, repressing their populaces through surveillance networks and violent, secretive police action. Europe, and the world, had entered a new era.
In Phantom Terror, award-winning historian Adam Zamoyski argues that the stringent measures designed to prevent unrest had disastrous and far-reaching consequences, inciting the very rebellions they had hoped to quash. The newly established culture of state control halted economic development in Austria and birthed a rebellious youth culture in Russia that would require even harsher methods to suppress. By the end of the era, the first stirrings of terrorist movements had become evident across the continent, making the previously unfounded fears of European monarchs a reality.
Phantom Terror explores this troubled, fascinating period, when politicians and cultural leaders from Edmund Burke to Mary Shelley were forced to choose sides and either support or resist the counterrevolutionary spirit embodied in the newly-omnipotent central states. The turbulent political situation that coalesced during this era would lead directly to the revolutions of 1848 and to the collapse of order in World War I. We still live with the legacy of this era of paranoia, which prefigured not only the modern totalitarian state but also the now preeminent contest between societys haves and have nots.
These tempestuous years of suspicion and suppression were the crux upon which the rest of European history would turn. In this magisterial history, Zamoyski chronicles the moment when desperate monarchs took the world down the path of revolution, terror, and world war.
Review
Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World WarThis diligently researched, beautifully written, and passionately argued work of scholarship completely convinces. Adam Zamoyski conclusively proves his case against the reactionary European Legitimist monarchy-dictatorships, and he does so with appropriately aristocratic panache. In so doing he leads an entire herd of sacred cows to the abattoir of history. This is revisionist history at its absolute best.”
Review
EconomistScintillating and original.”
Wall Street Journal
A sweeping history of the rise of state control in Europe from 1789 to 1848.... Mr. Zamoyski demonstrates an impressive command of political history and international relations as he chronicles the practices of state-sponsored censorship, surveillance and brutality that, in his view, ultimately prompted the revolutions they were intended to prevent.”
Atlantic
Zamoyski, who writes with flair and an eye for amusing detail, is particularly good on things Russian.”
Spectator, UK
Splendidly provocative.... [F]ull of arresting details and sharp asides. Adam Zamoyski writes like a dancer at a court ball: gracious, patrician, masterful, sure-footed.”
Daily Beast
Stimulating
elegantly sardonic.... Zamoyskis main point is clear and unimpeachable: Generating fear in the populace may be an excellent way to bolster state power, but its a lousy substitute for actual information and realistic assessment of the challenges a nation faces.”
The Times, UK
Vivid, terrifying and often quite funny.... Zamoyski admits that his story holds enormous relevance to the present. But, being a careful and wise historian, he leaves it to the reader to draw the conclusions that seem logical
Superbly drawn.”
Washington Times
Mr. Zamoyski documents, in indisputable detail, a system that relied on bumblers and fumblers, security agents so inept as to make the Keystone Cops look like Sherlock Holmes in comparison
[A] work of serious history.”
Weekly Standard
An able chronicler of Polish history, Zamoyski has also written studies of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna, giving him the fluency to balance stories of bumbling brothel tipsters with accounts of aristocratic conferences in Troppau and Laibach. It is this blend of high politics and sordidness that makes Phantom Terror so enjoyable a narrative. Zamoyski delivers on a relevant topic.”
Open Letters Monthly
Zamoyski has mastered the art of putting his readers as close to the thinking minds of his historical subjects as theyre ever likely to get. Hes particularly good at doing this for what we call the Napoleonic era; his 2004 book Moscow 1812 and his 2007 book Rites of Peace are masterpieces of historical insight, and Phantom Terror continues that happy pattern by digging into moods and atmospheres. Though-provoking.”
Kirkus
[Zamoyskis] point is important, and his book comprehensively examines the role of the powerful over the weak and the effects of governmental overreactions.”
Publishers Weekly
A meticulous, thorough account
Zamoyski takes an infamous 18th-century class struggle and painstakingly shows how the resulting suppression manifested itself through sophisticated spy networks and Germanys heightened nationalism, as well as a chasm between the economic and social classes that persists today.”
Library Journal
Provides insight into the political elites who sought to maintain the status quo
In pursuit of the story of paranoia and repression, Zamoyski has mined an impressive selection of primary sources from Britain to Austria.”
Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag: A History
With characteristic flair and elegance, Adam Zamoyski dissects the paranoia, suspicion, and conspiracy theories which followed in the wake of the French Revolution. He sketches out the birth of the modern police state in this era, as well as the origins of European totalitarianism and the beginnings of what we would later come to call class struggle. Phantom Terror is a timely and original history book, a brilliant guide to the past which will inspire reflections about the present as well.”
Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War
This diligently researched, beautifully written, and passionately argued work of scholarship completely convinces. Adam Zamoyski conclusively proves his case against the reactionary European Legitimist monarchy-dictatorships, and he does so with appropriately aristocratic panache. In so doing he leads an entire herd of sacred cows to the abattoir of history. This is revisionist history at its absolute best.”
Orlando Figes, author of Revolutionary Russia, 18911991
A memorably impressive and important book. Phantom Terror is scholarly, well-written and enjoyable, with fascinating insights on almost every page of this tour dhorizon of reactionary Europe in the revolutionary age.”
Synopsis
After the French Revolution, conservative governments from Britain to Russia created bulwarks to protect their power against the threat of further rebellions. They repressed and spied on their citizens, policing both speech and actions. In nations across Europe, politicians and cultural leaders from Edmund Burke to Mary Shelley chose sides, either propelling or resisting the counter-revolutionary spirit embodied in these omnipotent central states. These years of paranoia not only witnessed the first stirrings of modern totalitarian regimes, but gave birth to the political contest between the privileged and the underprivilegeda legacy that haunts us to this day.
In Phantom Terror, award-winning historian Adam Zamoyski reveals that the years after the French Revolution were the crux upon which the rest of European history would turna moment when desperate monarchs took the world down the path of revolution, terror, and world war.
About the Author
Adam Zamoyski is an award-winning author of numerous books about Poland, Napoleon, and 19th century Europe. A contributor to the
Times, the
Daily Telegraph, and the
Guardian, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Royal Society of Literature, Zamoyski lives in London.
Table of Contents
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