A study of prostitution in 19th-century Virginia City
My books combine documentary and historical research, field methods, and in depth interviewing. I hope that readers are as curious and open to surprises as I am.
I have (very briefly) tended bar at a Nevada brothel, attended psychodrama workshops, and fallen into a secret room where poisons were brewed in the communal city of Rajneeshpuram.
In Gold Diggers and Silver Miners, a Hamilton Prize winner, I explore the relationships between frontier prostitution and community life. Passionate Journeys describes successful American women who left the mainstream to follow their guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to central Oregon. My new book, The American Soul Rush, looks at a small spiritual retreat on the California coast and the ways that it reshaped contemporary spirituality.
