Customer Reviews

City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920

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This book was fascinating. I suppose I am not that well educated, because I had no idea how prevalent and how public prostitution was in the nineteenth century.

This book intricately weaves capitalism, social custom, and sex into a compelling narrative of nineteenth century New York City. The author doesn't just say that prostitution was prevalent, he cites newspapers, letters, public records, art, novels, circulars and other publications from the 1900s, which leave the reader in no doubt that prostitution was one of the leading industries of NYC at that time. The image of packs of teenage prostitutes roaming Broadway and the Bowery, (some as young as 10 or 12), will stay with me forever.

The writer goes on to illustrate how the lack of career opportunities for women and the exorbitant rents of Manhattan drove many women into the sex business. For most of these women, there were few choices: live in extreme poverty or turn a few tricks and have decent lodgings, food and clothing. Most of these women didn't think of themselves as "fallen". They were doing what was necessary to survive. They went willingly into prostitution so that their lives could be better. Ironically, although it was business that victimized and objectified women, prostitution gave many of them entrepreneurial opportunities. The sex business made some women rich.

It is interesting to note that the very society that reviled these women directly benefited from the real estate boom that the sex business made possible. Poor people couldn't have afforded the high rents, but prostitutes were able to. Once landlords realized how much more prostitutes could pay, they were happy to have them instead of "decent people". Not only did prostitutes pay higher rents, but they also paid police and politicians to "look the other way". A huge political machine grew up around the sex industry that aided and abetted it. Almost everyone had heard of Tammany Hall.

When you add in the fact that it became "trendy" during the 1900s for men to live the "Sporting Life" (prostitutes, gambling, drinking, boxing - all around partying), the flourishing of prostitution seems inevitable.

Eventually, the changing landscape of the real estate business, the increase of career opportunies for women, the availability of birth control, the changing attitudes towards sex and marriage, and a marked increase in benevolent societies designed to assist the poor and needy made the downfall of prostitution as inevitable as its rise.

This was a truly fascinating book. Normally it takes me weeks and weeks to plough through one of these non-fiction historical types of books, (even though I love them!), but I breezed through this one in about 4 days. I would recommend it to anyone, but particularly to those interested in the history of New York City, sex, and/or women.

Timothy J. Gilfoyle's City of Eros looks at New York City in its "century of prostitution", roughly from 1820 to 1920. He gives much more than a narrative history (although certainly many personalities and stories do shine through) as he looks at the broader picture and includes a taste of nineteenth sociology, a dash of its politics, and a smidgen of its literature and culture as it pertains to sex. Through the entire book, the most strongly drawn character becomes New York City itself as the reader is almost invited to see a city that is teeming with commercial sex throughout the entire island of Manhattan. The commercialization of sex, despite the efforts of vice puritans, changes more because the city changes. It was interesting to see the commercialization of sex tied in with other forms of commerical enterprise. A fitting companion to this book would be The Murder of Helen Jewett by Patricia Cline Cohen. Read Timothy Gilfoyle's book for the broader picture and Patricia Cohen's for some of the finer, more personal details. A wonderful read with much information.

I will start with the negative comments regarding this book and say that the prose does tend to be somewhat dry. This does not make for the easiest of readings and additionally, I often found Gilfoyle's tendency to state a point and then simply list examples of individuals to back his claim tedious and clumsy.

Also, the focus is somewhat meandering. Despite the title, City Of Eros doesn't necessarily stick to it's topic of prostitution but ends up venturing into the areas of pornography and literature. There is one utterly pointless chapter entitled 'A Gay Literature' which deals exculsively with the role of the prostitute in literature which I felt was wholly unnecessary and diverting.

But this is where the criticisms end. In the main, City of Eros is a splendidly researched piece that at it's best moments, truly conjures up the spirit, atmosphere and grunge of 19th Century New York. The slums of Five Points is truly brought to life as is the general experience of being a prostitute/madam/pimp/customer in those times. The sense that one comes away with is that of a city riddled with overt prostitution - it was everywhere, in plain view and considered to be an integral and accepted part of New York society. It's also interesting to note how little has changed regarding the media's hysterical portrayal of prostitution. The truth is that, then as now, coercion was rarely employed. Most women who engaged in this kind of activity did so for short periods of time in between employment or even to supplement the low incomes earned as seamstresses and servants.

Also noteworthy are the vivid descriptions of the male sporting culture which viewed the frequenting of brothels and promiscuity as being expressions of ultra-masculine behavior, expressions that reflected a rebellion against the taming and control of male sexuality that marriage was percieved to have involved.

New York was definitely a rough and wild town once upon a time. City Of Eros does an excellent job in conjuring up that wildness for our dainty 21st Century sensibilities.

I bought this book, because I had to write a report on prostitution for my history class. This book is amazing. It tells you how prostitution became a huge industry, and how it waned in the turn of the century. It's pure history, full of data. I can not believe prostitution was so pervasive and so normal that 1 out of 6 or 7 woman in New York City were prostitutes. It also tells you about why people chose to be prostitute. One interesting thing in this book is that you can see that prostitution is just like any other industries--because it's so hugely profitable, everybody was trying to think of a new way of attarcting male patrons to earn money, and every time when people try to eliminate prostitution, it always adapts itself so that it can survive. The men culture which was a Coo-product of prostition was Sporting-men culture, those young boys did not care about any traditions, they had their new way of doing things. And also the relationship between prostitution and real estate industry. But at the end, because prostitution is so pervasive, causing so much trobles, and there were so many people angaist it, so it waned. But the main reason that happened was because the supply and demand for prostitution deceased, and because of the rise of industry, prostitution was not the most profitable business anymore. Strongly Recommended. Oh, yeah, this book has 500 pages, but 200 of them are appendix, so it's only a 300 pages book. Also, this book sometimes has too much details.

Sex. At one time or another it's on everybody's mind. For some people, sex is more than a thought, it's a business. And what a business it was in New York from the late 18th through the early 20th Century.

Timothy Gilfoyle has done an impressive job of researching all aspects of the business of prostitution.(Roughly one-third of the pages are notes, sources, references and index.)

Gilfoyle covers the saga of how the sex industry grew with New York; the changing nature of the perception of prostitutes by New Yorkers; the economic structure of the sex business in New York; how reformers tried and failed to put an end to it; the roles of race, class and immigration; the rise of the pimp and how modern times diminished the role of prostitution. (These capsule descriptions are from the dustjacket of the hard cover edition which is remarkable in itself as an accurate summary of a book.)

Gilfoyle is an extraordinary researcher. Better yet, he is also a talented author. Unlike far too many academics who cannot construct a simple sentence, Guilfoyle writes clearly and concisely, turning his veritable mountain of evidence into a compelling narrative of a fascinating subject.

How did prostitutes see themselves? Did they perceive themselves as the "fallen women" of folklore? Or was prostitution actually a liberating occupation that gave women the opportunity to create their own wealth? Were they "white slaves"? Gilfoyle expores this subject and it is fascinating to see how the business changed from decade to decade.

Who benefited from prostitution? Lots of people. Gilfoyle does remarkably well here showing that prostitution benefited many people in many ways. Some of the most prominent names of early New York increased their wealth by owning brothels. Even more of those prominent New Yorkers spent at least some of their wealth on prostitutes. And the women (and men) who were the "sex workers" of their day also benefited. It's quite a story and Gilfoyle tells it well.

One line in particular sums up the history of prostitution in New York that Gilfoyle captures and capsulizes so well: " Prostitution - a symbol of social degeneration for some and a public and popular activity for many others - was characterized, in part, by its ambiguity." Very much to his credit, Gilfoyle captures and portrays this ambiguity.

"City of Eros" is a fascinating history. It is a great pity that there aren't more academics like Timothy Gilfoyle who make (truthful) history available to the general public. Pity that the modern era apparently is not Prof. Gilfoyle's specialty, for it would be interesting to compare commercial sex then with now.

Jerry

I felt that Mr. Gilfoyle certainly hit a home run with this book. This is a sorely needed explanation of the evolution of American prostitution in urban America. Additionally, Mr. Gilfoyle never takes the moral high ground against any group. He also explores the reform movements of the late nineteenth century--that were only a bumb in the road. And finally Mr. Gilfoyle doesn't have a veiled Feminist agenda that makes the book more objective.

"A fascinating study.... Gilfoyle does not simply catalogue the omnipresence of the prostitutes. He situates their trade in the economic life of the city....City of Eros is social history at its best, beautifully written, with a mosaic of rich detail that informs but does not overwhel the narrative line."----------David Nasaw, New York Times Book Review

" Gilfoyle has tied together into one package the interrelationship between the role and status of women, American ideas about sex, the effects of urbanization and immigration, real estate speculation, vigilantism, and politics....In short, he has effectively brought issues of sexualit int osocial history.... Deserving of the highest praise."----------Vern L. Bullough, HIstorian

" A wonderful book . The reasearch is overwhelming in breadth, precision, and imaginatoin. City of Eros beautifully portays an aspect of social and urban, as well as economic, history, which we can on longer ignore."--------Mary P. Ryan, University of California, Berkeley.