Confiscated Histories. Access to ‘Sensitive’ Government Records and Archives in France
- In France, the culture of secrecy continues to dominate access policies. The acceptance of or resistance to this culture by various social actors, including government officials, civil servants such as archivists, historians, independent scholars, and journalists, partly explains the historical tension between advocates of a more restrictive or liberal policy of access to government records deemed ‘sensitive’. Unlike the American case with its long-established right to access, in France, access to information is just starting to be considered a citizen’s right. Initial reactions to the first version of my book (1994) sparked a rather violent debate. In the controversy, most of the archivists and some influential historians either denied or justified the difficulty of accessing so-called ‘sensitive archives’. Indeed, thanks to the ‘invisibility’ of this question until then, a book dedicated to the ‘Vichy Syndrome’, which had been published some years before, did not even mention this problem as evidence of France’s difficulties in facing the past.
Author: | Sonia CombeGND |
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URL: | https://www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/1-2013/4435 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.14765/zzf.dok-1554 |
Parent Title (English): | Zeithistorische Forschungen – Studies in Contemporary History |
Publisher: | ZZF – Centre for Contemporary History: Zeithistorische Forschungen |
Place of publication: | Potsdam |
Document Type: | Journal Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2013/04/19 |
Date of first Publication: | 2013/04/19 |
Release Date: | 2019/08/19 |
Volume: | 10 |
Issue: | 1 |
First Page: | 123 |
Last Page: | 130 |
ZZF Regional-Classification: | Europa |
Europa / Westeuropa | |
Europa / Westeuropa / Frankreich | |
ZZF Chronological-Classification: | 1945- |
ZZF Topic-Classification: | Politik |
Kalter Krieg | |
Historiographiegeschichte | |
Internationale Beziehungen | |
Cold War Studies | |
Recht | |
Vergangenheitspolitik | |
Web-Publications: | Zeithistorische Forschungen |
Studies in Contemporary History: Articles: | 1 / 2013 Offenes Heft |
Licence (German): | ZZF - Clio Lizenz |