Denunciation as a Subject of Historical Research

As Europe's new police and surveillance systems were introduced in the late 18th and early 19th century, an integral role in their everyday operation was played by the provision of information from the population at large. Modern surveillance societies came into being over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries as citizens - for a whole host of reasons - began to watch and listen, and then to inform the 'authorities' about deviations they witnessed. More authoritarian regimes require more, not less, social involvement in surveillance and control. For one thing they want to control more aspects of social life. Until recently, denunciations were at best considered marginal, even by most social historians. But historiography filled that gap in the last decade. It has moved this social phenomenon from the margin of the stories to the centre and produced quite different pictures, especially with regard to Nazi Germany.