Susan C. Lawrence. Privacy and the Past: Research, Law, Archives, Ethics

Abstract

In his masterful 1956 story, “The Dead Past,” Isaac Asimov imagined a “chronoscope” that could look back in time. Officially described as a tool for historical research, the device in fact functions better as a tool to let the living spy on each other. As one character notes, “Isn’t it obvious that the past begins an instant ago? The dead past is just another name for the living present.” Yet, even though we can’t draw a hard line between past and present, we still feel instinctually that different rules should apply to older records. The historian, who with clear conscience spends the morning reading someone else’s century-old love letters, would be appalled to have his own email hacked in the afternoon. Historians therefore must distinguish between private records that should remain private, and those once-private documents that have aged into records of the dead past, whose disclosure can enrich collective knowledge without harming anyone. Making such distinctions is a challenge, and historian Susan Lawrence does not pretend to offer simple formulae. But she does pose useful questions, and Privacy and the Past should be read by historians, archivists, and policy makers who seek to balance the demands of knowledge and privacy.