Bawdy City

Bridging social, labor, and legal history, assistant professor of history at the University of Arizona Katie M. Hemphill analyzes the changing nature of prostitution in Baltimore, Maryland, across the long nineteenth century. Understanding Baltimore as a “middle ground” between North and South as well as an urban area in transition from the mercantilist economy of the late eighteenth century through rise of the market economy to the era of industrialization allows Hemphill to place prostitution and its related sex trades into the changing economic contexts. This approach permitted her to chart the changing social context on the ground, paying particular attention to the presence of African American women in the trade. This archive-based impressive addition to the literature widens the lens of study of prostitution from just one era (say the Civil War years or the Progressive Era) and delivers a bigger picture of the changes in prostitution both spatially

Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Industrialisation · Mercantilism · Political science · Politics · Progressive era · Social history (medicine · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · American History and Culture · History · Law · Military history and social perspectives · Sex work and related issues