Orwell, George

George Orwell was an English writer and novelist. Although he created both nonfiction and fiction works, his most famous novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, are particularly relevant to discussions of surveillance, security, privacy, and government power. Both of these books projected his fears of what the future would hold and the types of governments that could result from popular revolutions. His expectations for the future were quite pessimistic, and it is obvious that he felt that the prospects for maintaining privacy and avoiding surveillance by government authorities would be difficult. Both novels have become iconic volumes that reflect popular concerns about personal liberty and the ability that future governments could manipulate information and use the power of information to dominate society and the personal ...