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Article: Against Obscenity: Reform and the Politics of Womanhood in America, 1873-1935.(Book review)
- Article from:
- Journal of Social History
- Article date:
- September 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Journal of Social History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Against Obscenity: Reform and the Politics of Womanhood in America, 1873-1935. By Leigh Ann Wheeler (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. 251 pp.).
This book fills an important gap in historical understanding about anti-obscenity movements in the United States. As Wheeler observes, there are studies of Anthony Comstock and his colleagues in the late nineteenth century, and the issue has also generated controversy among feminists in recent decades. This book fills the void in between by describing the efforts of organized clubwomen to deal with the growing commercialization of sex in the early twentieth century. Using maternalist arguments, women often ...