Synopses & Reviews
The Unwanted Gaze is an important book about one of the most pressing issues of our day: how changes in technology and the law have combined to demolish our rights of privacy, and what we can and must do to re-secure them.
In a world in which Ken Starr can subpoena Monica Lewinsky's bookstore receipts and deleted e-mail messages can be used as justification for firing employees, it's clear that private information of all kinds can be taken out of context and wielded against us. Where exactly did our constitutional guarantees on privacy go? In superbly lucid prose, Jeffrey Rosen tells not only where those privacy rights went but also how we can get them back. The Unwanted Gaze is utterly indispensable for anyone who cares about the future of his or her private life.
Review
"This remarkably rich and detailed book sharpens our understanding of a problem that most of us prefer not to think about." Alex Kozinski, The New York Times Book Review,
Review
"Brilliant and haunting...a pleasure to read." The Washington Post Book World
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"Rosen makes a complex subject fascinating by showing us how vulnerable we all are. His message: Pay attention. It could happen to you." The Denver Post
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"This remarkably rich and detailed book sharpens our understanding of a problem that most of us prefer not to think about." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Using John Stuart Mill as his model, Rosen mounts a strong argument that citizens of the U.S. have had their right to privacy eroded over time, and never more so than in the recent past. He cites examples from English law and from American decisions to show how high the standards of privacy once were in different areas such as home and work, and how lawyers and the courts have whittled away at those standards. He also offers chilling accounts of the loss of privacy as a result of the new technology. The most famous recent case he cites is that of Monica Lewinsky's entire hard drive being subpoenaed (by Ken Starr) as a result of the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit against President Clinton which Rosen claims was itself more of a privacy issue than harassment....a thoughtful book and timely..." Frank Caso, Booklist
About the Author
Jeffrey Rosen is an associate professor at the George Washington University Law School and legal affairs editor of
The New Republic. He is a graduate of Harvard College; Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School. His essays and book reviews have appeared in many publications, including
The New York Times Magazine and
The New Yorker. He lives in Washington, D.C.
From the Hardcover edition.