EBOOK
About
From Eve and Lilith to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, the prostitute has been both a target of scorn and a catalyst for social change. In Love for Sale, cultural historian Nils Johan Ringdal delivers an authoritative and engaging history of this most maligned, yet globally ubiquitous, form of human commerce.
Beginning with the epic of Gilgamesh, the Old Testament, and ancient cultures from Asia to the Mediterranean, Ringdal considers the varying way societies have dealt with and thought about prostitutes through history. He discusses how they were included in the priestess class in ancient Greece and Rome; how the rise of the courtesan in nineteenth-century Europe shaped literature, fashion, the arts, and modern sensibilities. He uncovers the first manuals on the art of sex and seduction, the British Empire's campaigns against prostitution in India, and stories of the Japanese "comfort women" who served the armies in the Pacific theater of World War II. Ringdal closes with the rise of the sex-workers' rights movement and 'sex-positive" feminism, and a realistic look at the true risks and rewards of prostitution in the present day.
Beginning with the epic of Gilgamesh, the Old Testament, and ancient cultures from Asia to the Mediterranean, Ringdal considers the varying way societies have dealt with and thought about prostitutes through history. He discusses how they were included in the priestess class in ancient Greece and Rome; how the rise of the courtesan in nineteenth-century Europe shaped literature, fashion, the arts, and modern sensibilities. He uncovers the first manuals on the art of sex and seduction, the British Empire's campaigns against prostitution in India, and stories of the Japanese "comfort women" who served the armies in the Pacific theater of World War II. Ringdal closes with the rise of the sex-workers' rights movement and 'sex-positive" feminism, and a realistic look at the true risks and rewards of prostitution in the present day.
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Reviews
"An enlightening and entertaining piece of work. . . A survey of the world's oldest profession, which becomes, in effect, a sexual history of the world. . . A heady romp through the ages and under the covers . . . that dances from the escapades of Paris's legendary Nana, to the. . . preppie call girls of 1980s Manhattan without missing a beat. . . Social history at its poppiest."
Kirkus Reviews
"An entertaining look at attitudes toward the 'world's oldest profession'."
Nan Goldberg, Newark Sunday Star-Ledger
"Ringdal assembles a wealth of fascinating facts to render a panoramic view of the complex global history of prostitution. Writing with respect, candor, and wit. . . Ringdal's admiration for successful prostitutes is tempered by his tacit recognition that most prostitutes' lives are wretched at best."
Donna Seaman, Booklist