Private Lives. A History
Privatlivets historie
“No, that’s private,” we tend to reply when faced with questions we prefer to avoid.
We don’t read other people’s diaries—certainly not openly. We are reluctant to enter other people’s bedrooms. We often talk about “the sanctity of private life,” where the private is something to be protected and preserved.
But what is considered private is not constant. Before industrialization, it was not uncommon for household members, including servants, to share a bed. For the housewife, the home was a workplace. And with the emergence of screens, the dynamic between the private and the public has once again changed: The world has entered our living rooms, and our living rooms have entered the world.
Through thirteen chapters on our private lives, Hilde Gunn Slottemo has written a new and different story about our recent history.
Hilde Gunn Slottemo is a professor of history.
‘A highlight of the book is the depiction of how the combination of active social democratic policies and commercial forces transforms the role of the housewife in the post-war era. Slottemo illustrates how state campaigns and advertising function as public mirrors of the private sphere. Schematically, one could say that women transitioned from being unpaid domestic workers to becoming consumers and wage earners in the public sphere. I am reminded of Annie Ernaux’s novel The Years, a book that, on an even more microscopic level, portrays similar changes in France. The focus on women’s central role in societal transformations is a strong feature of The History of Private Life.’
Klassekampen
