By the turn of the twentieth century, Beaumont, Texas had acquired a reputation as a rough place. Situated in the oil-soaked chaos of Spindletop, Jefferson County was a hotbed of vice. For decades, gambling and prostitution thrived as elected officials either looked the other way or took money to keep quiet. That is, until 1960 when a swashbuckling young state legislator blew into town and spearheaded an intensive investigation into the rampant vice and governmental corruption that supported it. And, at a time when such things were virtually unheard of, he and his committee played it out on live television. When the dust finally cleared, the local governments of Jefferson County were turned inside out.

Archaeology of a Brothel in Nineteenth-Century Boston, MA provides an accessible and thought-provoking account of the archaeological understanding of nineteenth-century prostitution in Boston, Massachusetts. The book explores how the practice of nineteenth-century sex work involved a careful construction of fantasy for brothel customers. This fantasy had the potential to provide financial stability and security for the madam of the establishment, if not for the women working for them. Employing theories of embodiment, sexuality, and an archaeology of the senses, this study of the Endicott Street collection contributes a new methodological and theoretical framework for studying the archaeology of prostitution across time, space, and culture. The material culture recovered from brothel sites allows exploration of both the semi-private, "behind the scenes" narrative of sex work, as well as the semi-public, eroticised "performance space" where patrons were entertained. Few books on the archaeology of sex work exist and this volume will both provide an updated perspective on the history of sex work in Boston in the nineteenth century as well as tie advances in gender and embodiment theories to a compelling case study. The book is for students and scholars of historical archaeology, nineteenth-century urban America, and gender studies. Students studying feminist theory and archaeology of the senses will also be interested in the contents.

This volume explores the sex trade in America from 1850 to 1920 through the perspectives of archaeologists and historians, expanding the geographic and thematic scope of research on the subject. Historical Sex Work builds on the work of previous studies in helping create an inclusive and nuanced view of social relations in United States history. Many of these essays focus on lesser-known cities and tell the stories of people often excluded from history, including African American madams Ida Dorsey and Melvina Massey and the children of prostitutes. Contributors discuss how sex workers navigated spatial and legal landscapes, examining evidence such as the location of Hooker’s Division in Washington, D.C., and court records of prostitution-related crimes in Fargo, North Dakota. Broadening the discussion to include the roles of men in sex work, contributors write about the proprietor Tom Savage, the ways prostitution connected with ideas of masculinity, and alternative reasons men may have visited brothels, such as for treatment of venereal disease and impotence. Focusing on the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration and including rarely investigated topics such as race, motherhood, and men, this volume deepens our understanding of the experiences of practitioners and consumers of the sex trade and shows how intersectionality affected the agency of many involved in the nation’s historical vice districts. Contributors: Ashley Baggett | Carol A. Bentley | Kristen R. Fellows | Alexander D. Keim | AnneMarie Kooistra | Jade Luiz | Jennifer A. Lupu | Anna M. Munns | Penny A. Petersen | Angela J. Smith | Mark S. Warner

Often overlooked, disregarded, or hidden from historical accounts due to its racy connotations, the prostitution industry was one of the most important factors in the development of the American West. The “oldest profession” fueled the economies of camps, towns, and cities as they grew.Sex workers, from common prostitutes to reigning madams such as Anna Wilson, Maggie Wood, and Big Ann Wynne, defied social norms to make sure their hometowns, and they themselves, were successful. Their reasons for entering the life varied, from women who could find no other way to make money to those who desired independence and wealth. In return they were ostracized, criticized, and subject to fines, jail, disease, drug addiction, violence, and unwanted pregnancies. While their success stories are many, others failed in their endeavors, their names buried with them when they died. Behind Brothel Doors chronicles the history of the nineteenth-century sex work industry in the Great Plains states of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.

The hard-bitten PI with a bottle of bourbon in his desk drawer--it's an image as old as the genre of hard-boiled detective fiction itself. Alcohol has long been an important element of detective fiction, but it is no mere prop. Rather, the treatment of alcohol within the works informs and illustrates the detective's moral code, and casts light upon the society's attitudes towards drink. This examination of the role of alcohol in hard-boiled detective fiction begins with the genre's birth, in an era strongly influenced and affected by prohibition, and follows both the genre's development and its relation to our changing understanding of and attitudes towards alcohol and alcoholism. It discusses the works of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Robert B. Parker, Lawrence Block, Marcia Muller, Karen Kijewski and Sue Grafton. There are bibliographies of both the primary and critical texts, and an index of authors and works.

Booze captures the wild days of the Canadian west, when battles raged between the wets and the drys. From Winnipeg to the Rockies, whisky kept the prairies in a ferment for fifty years. Taking advantage of the enormous influx of immigrants during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, hotels sprang up in the towns and cities to cater to the prodigious thirst of their patrons. The unrestricted boozing resulted in drunkenness, brawling, petty crime and the disappearance of many a paycheque. It also resulted in a vigourous and ultimately successful campaign for total prohibition, and from approximately 1916 to 1924 the three Prairie provinces were legally dry. In his characteristic lively and engaging style, James Gray writes about a little-known aspect of Canadian social history, its aftermath, and the effects it has had on our lives today. Unlike many historians, Gray focuses on the everyday lives of ordinary men and women to give an authentic picture of the early years in western Canada. Booze was an instant bestseller when it was originally published in 1972, and has sold more than 100,000 copies in Canada and the U.S.