The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World (Summarized Edition). Enriched edition. A comprehensive global analysis of sex work's causes and societal effects

First published in 1858, The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World is a capacious survey that combines statistics, case histories, and legal-medical commentary to map sex commerce from antiquity to the nineteenth century. Sanger writes in the empirical, documentary mode of early social science, yet with the moral vocabulary of Victorian reform. Drawing on comparative sources and public health debates, he interrogates poverty, migration, and gendered labor as causes, while tracking venereal disease, policing, and regulationist regimes as effects.
A New York physician and public health official, William W. Sanger conducted one of the earliest citywide surveys of prostitutes, commissioned by municipal authorities. His clinical experience and administrative responsibilities, informed by precedents like Parent-Duchâtelet's Parisian study, shaped a method that prized aggregation of data alongside ethnographic observation, seeking pragmatic knowledge to guide policy amid urban growth, immigration, and anxieties about social hygiene.
Readers in history, gender studies, public health, and legal reform will find this volume indispensable-both as a data-rich primary source and as a window onto nineteenth-century epistemologies and biases. Approach it critically, but do not ignore its enduring influence on debates over regulation, abolition, and the governance of sexuality. Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable-distilled, never diluted.
Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.