William W. Sanger’s The History of Prostitution (1858) was a pioneering work of social investigation, tracing the practice from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome through the medieval period to Sanger’s own time in New York. Drawing on ancient sources, statistics, and fieldwork, Sanger approached his subject with the reformist concern of a public health physician rather than moral condemnation, making it an early work in the sociology of urban life.
This free EPUB is formatted for e-readers. Its extensive treatment of antiquity — Greek hetairai, Roman brothels, temple prostitution — makes it relevant to classical social history alongside its significance as a document of Victorian social reform.