Seek and Hide

“Wry and fascinating…Gajda is a nimble storyteller [and] an insightful guide to a rich and textured history that gets easily caricatured, especially when a culture war is raging.”—The New York Times

“Gajda’s chronicle reveals an enduring tension between principles of free speech and respect for individuals’ private lives. But it also throws into sharp relief how much the context for that debate has changed in the past several decades…just the sort of road map we could use right now.”—The Atlantic

“Fascinating and thought-provoking analysis.”— Library Journal

“This brilliant and thought-provoking book shows how America’s well-known emphasis on freedom of the press has long been balanced by a deep legal tradition that protects an individual’s right to privacy. With fascinat­ing case studies, Amy Gajda shows how battles over the right to privacy are nothing new, but they are particularly relevant in this era of digital media and social networks.”—WALTER ISAACSON, author of Steve Jobs
 
“The history of privacy is much more than a matter for the courts: it is, as Amy Gajda shows, an unsettling, emotionally wrought factor in American life that never goes away. These days, when news organizations can, under the First Amendment, pursue rumors and squeeze personal information from public figures, freedom of the press and personal dignity clash. With an abundance of sharply drawn examples, Gajda shines a needed spotlight on an uneasy inheritance. A tangled history, indeed.”—NANCY ISENBERG, author of White Trash
 
“For anyone who mistakenly believes that the debate about press freedom and privacy is a twenty-first-century problem, Amy Gajda’s Seek and Hide is a reminder that ‘gotcha’ journalism, political sex scandals, and hand-wringing over new technologies date back to the Founding Era. In this gorgeously written, rollicking account of a very complicated, very Ameri­can history of the smackdown between privacy versus the right to know, Gajda offers indispensable and timely context for contemporary debates about the boundaries of both. Ultimately Seek and Hide also serves as a bracing reminder that the laws of privacy and politics are often shaped by self-interested parties with the most to gain and the most to hide.”—DAHLIA LITHWICK, senior legal correspondent, Slate
 
“An engrossing and essential account of the origins of our present dilemma.”—JILL LEPORE, author of These Truths
 
“A magnificent book that shows us that the tension between the right to privacy and freedom of expres­sion is as old as this country yet as recent as social media and doorbell cameras. At a time when we all must be concerned about what it all means for each of us, Amy Gajda has written the definitive book about privacy and the right to know.”—ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law