Vice was one of the primary shared interests of the global community at the turn of the twentieth century. Anti-vice activists worked to combat noxious substances such as alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, and 'immoral' sexual activities such as prostitution. Nearly all of these activists approached the issue of vice by expressing worries about the body, its physical health, and functionality. By situating anti-vice politics in their broader historical contexts, Global Anti-Vice Activism, 1890-1950 sheds fresh light on the initiatives of various actors, organizations and institutions which have previously been treated primarily within national and regional boundaries. Looking at anti-vice policy from both social and cultural historical perspectives, it illuminates the centrality of regulating vice in imperial and national modernization projects. The contributors argue that vice and vice regulation constitute an ideal topic for global history, because they bridge the gap between discourse and practice, and state and civil society.

This book places vice and vice regulation in their global social and cultural contexts at the turn of the twentieth century.

About the Author
Jessica R. Pliley is an Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender History at Texas State University, San Marcos. Robert Kramm-Masaoka is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Research Institute of Comparative History and Culture at Hanyang University, Seoul. Harald Fischer-Tine is Professor of Modern Global History at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH-Zurich).


Book Information
ISBN 9781107500754
Author Jessica R. Pliley
Format Paperback
Page Count 349
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 510g
Dimensions(mm) 230mm * 153mm * 20mm