"Based on an excellent use of national defense, foreign office, and police archives and departmental archives in Nancy and Nice, this carefully researched book considers both the French security establishment and the social climate that helped to make it possible."—S. L. Harp, Choice
"Bauer has done critical archival work by painstakingly resurrecting the history of intelligence institutions for future scholars of French military intelligence. But this book will also be essential reading for students of French, German, and European history as well as the growing number of students and scholars interested generally in surveillance and intelligence. Marianne is Watching reminds us that our cultural fascination with spies and spying may seem benign entertainment, but its history is one of military expansion and xenophobia that is romanticized to compel people to believe in a powerful nationalist state."—Kathleen Keller, H-France Review
“A powerful book on an important subject. Marianne Is Watching is both a political history of intelligence as a potential force multiplier in international affairs and a social history of fin-de-siècle France. This is a very impressive piece of work.”—Martin Thomas, editor of The French Colonial Mind, Volumes 1 and 2
“Marianne Is Watching contributes to the emergence of a new total military history. Bauer’s combination of meticulous multi-archival research and her ability to fuse government archives and popular writing about espionage makes her work a major advance. Connecting the internal history of military and civilian intelligence to the broader politics of the regime provides fresh insights into how military and official culture and politics shaped the life of the Third Republic. This is important work.”—Andrew Orr, author of Women and the French Army during the World Wars, 1914–1940
