1st Edition

Revelations A Sociology of Uncovering

By Brian Rappert Copyright 2025
176 Pages 26 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

176 Pages 26 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

From tabloid headlines to scientific discoveries to investigative documentaries, the claim that truth is being revealed is commonplace today. Such attention-grabbing claims can conjure allure, sell products, launch careers, cement authority and much more besides. And yet, despite the familiarity of revelation-talk, this notion has been subject to limited academic theorizing to date outside of... Read more

1. Introduction

2. The Reveal

3. Vesting  

4. Becoming

5. Figuring

6. Splitting

7. Staging

8. Revelations Revisited

Biography

Brian Rappert is Professor of Science, Technology and Public Affairs at the University of Exeter. His long-term interest relates to the strategic management of information, particularly in armed conflict. His books include Controlling the Weapons of War: Politics, Persuasion, and the Prohibition of Inhumanity (2006) and Biotechnology, Security and the Search for Limits (2007). More recently, he has examined the social, ethical and political issues associated with researching and writing about secrets, as in his books Experimental Secrets (2009), How to Look Good in a War (2012) and Diseases of Secrecy (with Chandre Gould 2017). A recent line of his work has examined the relation between disclosure and concealment through undertaking an autoethnographic study of becoming an entertainment magician – see Performing Deception (2022).