Literature

The following list of literature is meant for scholarly research on nineteenth-century prostitution. 


General 
  • Gillfoyle, T.J., "Prostitutes in History: From Parables of Pornography to Metaphors of Modernity, The American Historical Review, 104 (1999) 117-141. 
  • Greer, M.R., Emotional Histories in the Fight to End Prostitution. Emotional Communities, 1869 to Today  (London 2022). (see blog post)
  • Rodriguez Garcia, M., L. Heerma van Voss, and E. van Nederveen Meerkerk (eds), Selling Sex in the City: a Global History of Prostitution, 1600s-2000s (Leiden 2017).
  • Walkowitz, Judith R., "The Politics of prostitution and sexual labour", History Workshop Journal 82 (2016) 188-198.


Urban histories
 
    Australia
  • Minchinton, B., The Women of Little Lon: Sex Workers in Nineteenth-Century Melbourne (Carlton 2021).

   Austria
  • Lusek, K.J., Auf der suche nach der verlorenen (Wien 1994).
 
  
    Belgium
 
   Brasil
  • Lauderdale Graham, S., House and street: the domestic world of servants and masters in nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro (Cambridge 1988)

    Germany
  • Bartels, M., Prostitution in der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft um 1900. Zwischen Ausgrenzung, Verachtung und Notwendigkeit (München2012).
  • Bruggemann, J., 'The Business of Sex: Evaluating Prostitution in the German Port City of Hamburg' in: R. Beachy, B. Craig and A. Owens (eds), Women, Business and Finance in Nineteenth Century Europe. Rethinking Separate Spheres (Oxford 2006) 182-196.
  • Evans, R. J., 'Prostitution, State and Society in Imperial Germany', Past and Present 70 (1976) 106-129. [Revised version in the book: R.J. Evans, Tales From The German Underworld. Crime And Punishment In The Nineteenth Century (New Haven 1998)] 
  • Schulte, R., Sperrbezirke: Tugendhaftigkeit und Prostitution in der bürgerlichen Welt (3e druk; Frankfurt am Main 1984).
  • Wünsch,S., Das erkrankte Geschlecht. Medizin und Prostitution im Berlin des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts (Würtzburg 2020).

    France
  • Bakker, N., et al., Splendeurs et misères: Images de la prostitution 1850-1910 (Paris 2015).
  • Camiscioli, E., Selling French Sex: Prostitution, Trafficking, and Global Migrations (Cambridge 2024).
  • Clayson, H., Painted Love: Prostitution in French Art of the Impressionist Era (2nd ed.; New Haven 2003).
  • Corbin, A., Les filles de noce: misère sexuelle el prostitution aux 19e el 20e siècles (Paris 1978).
  • Harris, J., Policing prostitution in nineteenth century Paris (New Jersey 1985).
  • Frondizi, A. and S. Porcher, 'The economics of street-level prostitution in Paris during the ‘Belle Epoque’ (1870-1914)', Applied Economics 53 (2021) 1163-1177
  • Frondizi, A. and S. Porcher, 'Sidewalk queens: the economics of popular prostitution in Fin-de-Siecle Paris' in: S. Cunningham and M. Shati, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Prostitution (Oxford 2016) 416-433. 
  • Peniston, W.A., Pederasts and others. Urban culture and sexual identity in Nineteenth-Century Paris (NY 2004).
  • Ross, A.I., Urban Desires: Practicing Pleasure in the ‘City of Light,’ 1848-1900 (Michigan 2011).
  • Ross, A.I., Public City/Public Sex. Homosexuality, Prostitution, and Urban Culture in Nineteenth-Century Paris (Philadelphia 2019).
  • Séquin, C., Desiring Whiteness. A Racial History of Prostitution in France and Colonial Senegal, 1848–1950 (Ithaca 2024).
    
    Russia
  • Hearne, S., Policing Prostitution: Regulating the Lower Classes in Late Imperial Russia (Oxford 2021). (see blog post)

    United Kingdom
  • Attwood, R.C., Vice beyond the pale. Representing 'White Slavery' in Britain, ca 1880-1912 (London 2012).
  • Drenth, A. v. en F. d. Haan, The rise of caring power: Elizabeth Fry and Josephine Butler in Britain and the Netherlands (Amsterdam 1999).
  • Fergus Linnane, Madams. Bawds & Brothel-keepers of London (2e dr; London 2009). [See Dutch blog post]
  • Finnegan, F., Poverty and prostitution: a study of Victorian prostitutes in York (Cambridge 1979) 
  • Gray, D., London's shadows: the dark side of the victorian city (London 2010)
  • Howell, Ph., Geographies of Regulation: Policing Prostitution in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the Empire (Cambridge 2009).
  • Laite, J., Common Prostitutes, and ordinary citizens. Commercial sex in London, 1885-1960 (London 2012)
  • Lister, K., Harlots, Whores & Hackabouts: A History of Sex for Sale (London 2021).
  • Pearson, J. and M. Rayner, Prostitution in Victorian Colchester: Controlling the Uncontrollable (Colchester 2018).
  • J. Robinson, Josephine Butler: A very brief history (London 2020).
  • Walkowitz, J. R., City of dreadful delight: narratives of sexual danger in late- Victorian London (Chicago 1992).
 
    United States
  • Gillfoyle, T.J., City of Eros. New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920 (Chicago? 1992) 
  • Hemphill, K.M., Bawdy City. Commercial Sex and Regulation in Baltimore, 1790–1915 (New York 2020). (see blog post)
  • Kelleher Schafer, J., Brothels, depravity, and abandoned women. Illegal sex in antebellum New Orleans (Louisiana 2011).
  • Luiz, J.W., Archaeology of a Brothel in Nineteenth-Century Boston, MA: Erotic Facades (? 2023) (see blog post)
  • Steverson, N., 'Devils Would Blush to Look’: Brothel Visits of the New York Female Moral Reform Society, 1835 and 1836.' Journal of the History of Sexuality 23 (2014): 226–46.
  • Wood Hill, M., Their Sister' keeper. Prostitution in New York City, 1830-1870 (Berkely 1993)


Literature on (archival) sources
  • Ditmore, M.H. ed, Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work, Volume 1 (Westport 2006). [Partly available in Google Books]
  • Gilfoyle, T. J., 'Prostitutes in the archives: problems and possibilities in documenting the history of sexuality, American Archivist 57 (1994) 514-527. 
  • Hollis, P., Women in public 1850-1900: documents of the Victorian women's movement (London, etc. 1979).
  • Ross, A.I., "Sex in the Archives: Homosexuality, Prostitution, and the Archives de la Préfecture de Police de Paris", French Historical Studies 40 (2017) p. 267-290.
  • Stratmann, Linda, Cruel deeds and illustrated calamities. The Illustrated Police News, 1864 - 1938 (London 2011).



Literature on the Netherlands can be found on the Dutch version of my blog

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