Section 1 is divided into three chapters that chart Whig secret history over the course of half a century. Each of the chapters addresses a different stage in this genre's development.

Chapter 1 focuses on Procopius's Anekdota. It describes the kind of model that Procopius's text provides for later writers in this tradition through an analysis of the internal, rhetorical features of the Anekdota and of the reception of this text in early modern Europe. This chapter reveals that early modern secret historians inherit from Procopius a complex literary and historiographical paradigm. Instead of simply revealing the secrets of those in power, the Anekdota also encourages its readers to reflect on and theorize the ethical and epistemic as well as the political consequences of its revelatory rhetoric.

Chapter 2 explores the boom in Whig secret history that happened during the 1690s. It demonstrates that, during this period, secret history developed into a peculiarly English form of historiography. It also analyses this form's engagement with what is now known as ‘whig’ historiography. This chapter shows that some secret historians, including John Somers and the anonymous author of the highly popular Secret History of the Reigns of K. Charles II and K. James II, present secret history as a token of newfound political liberties – a sign of the historical watershed that was created by the Revolution of 1688–9. Other secret historians, however, approach their chosen form in a less positive fashion. Instead of affirming the security of the Revolution settlement, writers like David Jones manipulate the conventions of secret history to suggest that the forces of arbitrary government pose an ongoing threat to English liberty and that the general populace remains powerless to act against such forces. Although several contemporary commentators accuse such secret historians of sedition, Chapter 2 argues that this highly sceptical form of historiography is designed to challenge not the government of William III, but rather the kind of political complacency that posed an indirect threat to English political liberty during the 1690s.