History of Prostitution, The.
Sanger, William W., M.D. The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects Throughout the World...New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1858.
Thick 8vo.; floral printed endpapers; some pages yellowed and foxed; hinges tender, few closed tears to preliminaries at spine; espresso marbled paper-covered boards; red calf spine and tips, spine stamped in gilt; covers used, occasionally scuffed; all edges marbled.
First edition of a massive (685 pages, including index) study which researches the past and the present day conditions of female sex workers. Written by William W. Sanger (no relation to Margaret), Resident Physician at Blackwell’s Island, New York, and commissioned by the Governors of the Alms-House of the City and County of New York State. Most of the women studied by Dr. Sanger and his colleagues were incarcerated women of the lower classes, many non-whites and immigrants among them; but the book aims at a global perspective on the phenomenon of prostitution amongst all sorts of female populations. To this end, Sanger divides his work into thirty-seven different chapters, each dealing with a subset of prostitutes: his chapter headings include “The Jews”; “Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor”; “Greece”; “Rome”; “The Early Christian Era”; “France - History During the Middle Ages”; “France - History From the Middle Ages to Louis XIII”; “France - Present Regulations”; “Russia”; “Great Britain - Prostitution at the Present Time”; “Central and South America”; “Barbarous Nations”; “New York - Statistics”; “New York - Prostitutes and Houses of Prostitution”; “New York - Remedial Measures”; and many others.
The result is a strange work, which blends a generally lurid (and certainly racist) tone with flashes of progressive, proto-feminist thinking. For instance, Sanger’s observation that most prostitutes are foreign-born overlooks the central fact that the population he was observing was incarcerated, and was thus a comment on the judicial system as well. But, unlike most moral crusaders of the time, Sanger does attempt to address the material conditions that influenced some women to turn to selling themselves.
Reluctant to consider female sexual desire as a motive for prostitution, Sanger emphasized...economic need, as his ‘case studies’ indicate...To illustrate the economic origins of prostitution, Sanger offered cases such as that of M.M., ‘a widow with one child’ who ‘earned $1.50 per week as a tailoress.’ Another woman, a servant, ‘was taken sick while in a situation, spent all her money, and could get no employment when she recovered.’ Sanger quoted the words of M.T., who explained that she ‘had no work, no money, and no home.’ Other cases of poverty included a widow with three children who ‘could not obtain steady employment,’ and a German immigrant who ‘was robbed of all her money the very day she reached the shore’ (qtd. in John D’Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, New York: Harper & Row, 1988, p.136).
Sanger’s book ends with an interesting list of observations, many of which are still relevant today. In part:
There are six thousand public prostitutes in New York. The majority of these are from fifteen to twenty years old...Many of those born abroad came here poor, to improve their condition. Education is at a very low standard with them...Women in this city have not sufficient means of employment. Their employment is inadequately remunerated...A necessity exists for some action…
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