Love for Sale: A World History of Prostitution (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780802141842)

From the Whore of Babylon to Pretty Woman, the exchange of sex for money is often cited as the oldest profession. Now, eminent historian Nils Johan Ringdal delivers a magisterial, extremely readable world history of this most maligned--and most persistent--form of human commerce. Beginning with the epic of Gilgamesh, the Old Testament, and ancient cultures from Greece to India and beyond, Love for Sale takes the reader on a tour through the entire recorded history of prostitution up to the modern red-light district. It shows how different societies have dealt with prostitutes: ancient Greece, Rome, and India incorporated them into several social echelons, including the priestess class; their close relations with artists in 19th-century Europe made them muses to the modern sensibility; and the Victorians campaigned against them. Love for Sale closes with Sydney Biddle Barrows, the rise of the sex-workers' rights movement and contemporary "sex-positive" feminism, and a realistic look at the true risks and rewards of prostitution in the present day.

Author: Nils Johan Ringdal
ISBN-10: 0802141846
ISBN-13: 9780802141842
Publisher: Grove Press
Language: English
Published: 01/18/2005
Pages: 448
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.37lbs
Size: 9.06h x 6.02w x 1.18d