America's War on Prostitution 1870-1930

Why did American reformers and missionaries seek to eliminate prostitution worldwide at the end of the 19th Century and the start of the 20th? In this wide ranging conversation with Dr Eva Payne Assistant Professor of History at the University of Mississippi about her new book, Empire of Purity. We explore how ideas around empire, race, eugenics and the need to police sexuality combined to lead US private citizens and politicians to wage war against prostitution world wide, enforcing a sexual abstinence model that had predictably disastrous results. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can support the podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.