The chapter explains why the concept of whistleblowing crystallized in the early 1970s, and why it so rapidly established itself in the domains of culture, politics, and research in the following years across the Western world. Whistleblowing as a new kind of action repertoire took take shape in a historical context of heightened authority critique and individualization. The 1960s and 1970s were also periods of growing attention to the uncertainties and dangers involved in human production and technology. The coining of the concept of whistleblowing created a new actor category that could be acted on by the state. During the 1980s and 1990s, legislation started to appear that recognized the democratic importance of whistleblowing and how whistleblowers act from a precarious position, which requires protection.