When Privacy Was Invented

This book explores the historical development of privacy, challenging the common notion that it has been eroded over time. Instead, it reveals how privacy is a human construct that has been carefully built through various societal and material innovations across different cultures and eras. By examining diverse living spaces and practices, the narrative shows that the need for privacy is ancient and universal, even if the methods of achieving it are recent and varied. Ultimately, it argues that privacy is an ongoing human invention, continually reinvented to meet changing needs.