First published 2026
Private life stands under siege. Tiffany Jenkins charts how personal sanctuary emerged as a recent historical achievement and warns it may prove temporary. She traces privacy's origins through political battles of the seventeenth century, when Edmund Coke declared that an Englishman's home is his castle. The story moves through the 1844 scandal when British officials opened Giuseppe Mazzini's private letters, sparking the first modern privacy panic. Jenkins identifies three forces dismantling personal boundaries today: state and corporate surveillance, confessional culture that makes people complicit in their own exposure, and the politicization of intimate matters. Her analysis spans from reality television's public embrace to China's social credit system. The book demonstrates that private life represents a precious resource requiring active defense. Jenkins argues we risk losing this sanctuary before recognizing its true value.
Genres: history, social-science, political-science, sociology, non-fiction, current-affairs
Vibes: analytical, cautionary, scholarly, thought-provoking, urgent
Tropes: cultural-critique, historical-analysis, institutional-examination
Setting: England, Britain, China
Period: 17th century, 1844, 19th century, 20th century, 21st century
320 pages · Paperback · Picador UK