{"product_id":"the-underworld-sewer-a-prostitute-reflects-on-life-in-the-trade-1871-1909-9780803297975","title":"The Underworld Sewer: A Prostitute Reflects on Life in the Trade, 1871-1909","description":"For twenty years Josie Washburn lived and worked in houses of prostitution. She spent the last twelve as the madam of a moderately fancy brothel in Lincoln, Nebraska. After retiring in 1907 and moving to Omaha, she turned to \"throwing a searchlight on the underworld,\" including the \"cribs\" of Nebraska's largest city. \u003ci\u003eThe Underworld Sewer\u003c\/i\u003e, based on her own experience in the profession, blazes with a kind of honesty unavailable to more conventional moral reformers. Originally published in 1909, \u003ci\u003eThe Underworld Sewer\u003c\/i\u003e asks why \"the social evil\" is universally considered necessary or inevitable. Washburn minces no words in exposing the conditions that perpetuate prostitution: the greed and graft of landlords, pimps, alcohol vendors, dope dealers, police officers, city administrators, and politicians; the competition for circulation by sensation-seeking newspapers; the indifference or intolerance of law-abiding, church-going citizens; the false modesty that prevents family discussion of venereal disease; the double standard that allows men to indulge their sexuality but punishes women who do so.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSharon Wood is an assistant professor of history at the University of Chicago.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Bison Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50492075606290,"sku":"9780803297975","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_a1dc4ce5-6ec0-45e5-a1e1-6604c022db80.jpg?v=1730569927","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-underworld-sewer-a-prostitute-reflects-on-life-in-the-trade-1871-1909-9780803297975","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}