A compelling account of how women shaped the common law right to privacy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Drawing on a wealth of original research, Jessica Lake documents how the advent of photography and cinema drove women-whose images were being taken and circulated without their consent-to court. There they championed the creation of new laws and laid the groundwork for America's commitment to privacy. Vivid and engagingly written, this powerful work will draw scholars and students from a range of fields, including law, women's history, the history of photography, and cinema and media studies.