Can the government stick us with privacy we don't want? It can, it does, and according to the author, it may need to do more of it. Privacy is a foundational good, she argues, a necessary tool in the liberty lover's kit for a successful life. A nation committed to personal freedom must be prepared to mandate privacy protections for its people, whether they eagerly embrace them or not. This book draws attention to privacies of seclusion, concealment,...

In Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "A Year of Thirteen Moons," the camera watches the prostitute Red Zora as she watches Fassbinder in a television interview. The actress is Ingrid Caven, the director's former wife and the woman with whom he claims to have his most important "elective affinity." At once provocative and revealing, the scene illustrates Fassbinder's interest in blurring the boundaries between art and life, between fiction and autobiography....