| Urban Reform and Sexual Vice in Progressive-Era Philadelphia: The Faithful and the Fallen Contributor(s): Adams, James H. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1498508685 ISBN-13: 9781498508681 Publisher: Lexington Books OUR PRICE: $113.85 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: July 2015 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Psychology | Human Sexuality (see Also Social Science - Human Sexuality) - History | United States - 19th Century - History | United States - State & Local - Middle Atlantic (dc, De, Md, Nj, Ny, Pa) |
| Dewey: 306.74 |
| LCCN: 2015007149 |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6.1" W x 9" (0.85 lbs) 212 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Sex & Gender - Feminine - Cultural Region - Mid-Atlantic |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book examines the intersection and interplay between Progressive-Era rhetoric regarding commercialized vice and the realities of prostitution in early-twentieth-century Philadelphia. Arguing that any study of commercial sexual vice in a historical context is difficult given the paucity of evidence, this work instead focuses on reformers' construction of a cultural view of prostitution, which Adams argues was based more upon their perceptions of the trade than on reality itself. Looking at the urban core of the city, Progressive reformers saw vice, immorality, and decay-but as they frequently had little face-to-face interaction with prostitutes plying their trade, they were forced to construct culturally fueled archetypes to explain what they believed they saw. Ultimately, reformers in Philadelphia were battling against a rhetorical creation of their own design, and any study of anti-vice reform in the early twentieth century tells us more about the relationship between activists and the government than it does about vice itself. |