BOOKS

Notices and reviews of books, articles, plays and poetry dealing with homosexuality and the sex variant. Readers are invited to send in reviews or printed matter for review.

CARD

THE HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION by Vern L. Bullough, Ph.D., and Bonnie L. Bullough, M.S., Research Assistant, University Books, New Hyde Park, New York, 1964, 304 pages, $7.50.

We have here a very different type of book from many that have been written in the sex field, such for example, as Benjamin and Masters' Prostitution and Morality. Dr. Bullough makes no pretense of being a world authority in medical and sex matters, but as a competent historian writes a straightforward and not too erudite account of prostitution through the ages. He admits to a certain reluctance in beginning the research, but felt more strongly the importance of the subject as he progressed. While he

avoids criticism and evaluation on the whole, he presents the facts upon which certain evaluations are inevitable.

Iwan Bloch is followed in the definition of prostitution: "a distinct form of extra-marital sexual intercourse characterized by being more or less promiscuous and notorious, . . . a form of professional commercialism . . . resulting in due time in the formation of a special type." (2) The subject is broad, however, and may include various ramifications. The book is organized chronologically but topically as well, covering Primitive and Ancient Societies, Great Religions, Western

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Europe, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, and some problems in the contemporary Changing World. The Eastern World is not included. The author is aware of his limitations in scope and hopes for many more studies in this "neglected area." He does not touch upon homosexual prostitution.

Some gleanings from the book may be of interest. It is rather surprising to find the attitudes of early Christianity. "Prostitutes were to be excluded from the Church as long as they continued their profession, but prostitution itself was to be allowed as a necessary evil." (67) Both St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas held that prostitution was sinful but was to be tolerated as "the price of social purity." (68) Well down into the Middle Ages this view was sustained and prostitution accepted "as a fact of life." (116) But it was to be regulated and controlled by efforts which were none too successful even among the clergy. Later attempts at suppression were fought as it was maintained that "prostitution prevented the appearance of greater evils." (142) By the eighteenth century the legalization of prostitution was seriously urged. The establishment of public brothels, it was held, would lead to a lessening of the spread of disease and many other evils. In spite of bitter opposition many countries did regulate the practice with results probably bene-