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Best regards, Andrew Stewart Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Date: October 19, 2018 at 6:15:47 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Poland]: Petruccelli on Stauter-Halsted, 'The > Devil's Chain: Prostitution and Social Control in Partitioned Poland' > Reply-To: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > > Keely Stauter-Halsted. The Devil's Chain: Prostitution and Social > Control in Partitioned Poland. Ithaca Cornell University Press, > 2015. 392 pp. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8014-5419-6. > > Reviewed by David Petruccelli (Diplomatic Academy of Vienna) > Published on H-Poland (October, 2018) > Commissioned by Anna Muller > > This is a splendid book. Extensively researched, written with verve, > and brimming with fresh insights and erudition, The Devil's Chain > traces the emergence of prostitution onto the Polish national > consciousness in the second half of the nineteenth century and the > way that the interpretation and reinterpretation of the problem > intersected with a burgeoning discourse about the nation. The book is > admirably broad in its approach. It integrates recent findings in the > historiography of prostitution from other, mostly Western European, > contexts. This breadth of vision is necessary in order to pinpoint > what is distinctive about the Polish case, which Keely > Stauter-Halsted suggests has much to do with the fact that Poland's > territories were divided up between the Russian, German, and Habsburg > empires in the late eighteenth century. A Polish state only reemerged > in 1918, near the end the story she tells. Stauter-Halsted argues > convincingly that Polish thinkers projected deeply felt anxieties > about this national division onto the question of prostitution. By > drawing on diverse topics, such as domestic prostitution, human > trafficking, mass migration, and the rise of a eugenic discourse, she > crafts a compelling account of "Poland's difficult transition to > modernity" (p. 2). > > The book's ten chapters are roughly divided into three sections. The > first three chapters examine how prostitution came to be perceived as > a problem in the Polish lands in the late nineteenth century. > Stauter-Halsted opens with a chapter describing the fears about > prostitution as typical of a "moral panic," a term she draws from the > scholarship of Stanley Cohen. The prostitute served as a figure that > could crystallize diverse anxieties of the rising bourgeoisie > concerned about urbanization, modernization (or the lack of it), and > the lasting political division of Poland. The second chapter turns to > the realities of prostitution. By showing that prostitution was > common in the rural as well as urban economies and that women easily > moved into and out of prostitution, Stauter-Halsted demonstrates that > the image of paid sex as an irreversible moral descent was largely a > myth of an out of touch bourgeoisie. This rising urban middle class > is at the center of the third chapter, which explores the extent to > which prostitution penetrated the bourgeois home through domestic > servants and the regulation system that was meant symbolically to > delineate and segregate sex work. > > The next three chapters examine the problem of "white slavery," as > sex trafficking was broadly called in the decades before the First > World War. The white slavery panic swept much of the world in the > last decades of the nineteenth century, crystallizing inchoate > anxieties about social and economic change. In Polish society, > broadly perceived as a principal source of trafficking victims, the > discourse of white slavery tapped into insecurities related to the > country's division between partitioning powers, belated > modernization, and place on the civilization scale. The fifth chapter > situates the white slave trade in a broader pattern of migration from > the Polish lands in the late nineteenth century, an interpretive > framework that complicates simplistic notions of agency and > exploitation. The sixth chapter examines the central role of Jews as > intermediaries and agents in mass migration out of Eastern Europe in > the late nineteenth century, and shows how this solidified a myth of > the Jew as the white slaver in Poland. This chapter complements > recent studies of migration agents operating in Eastern Europe, > notably by Tara Zahra (_The Great Departure: Mass Migration from > Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free World _[2016]). By casting > the white slaver as a Jew, Polish commentators avoided engaging with > deeper social factors favoring migratory prostitution and contributed > to the broader symbolic expulsion of Jews from the moral nation. > > The final four chapters examine the personalities and ideas > motivating efforts to reform prostitution in late imperial Poland and > the new Polish republic. In the seventh chapter, Stauter-Halsted > shows how female activists mobilized in the early twentieth century > against the problem of prostitution. These activists drove a shift in > public understanding of prostitution, from an emphasis on the > prostitute as an immoral actor to a focus on the iniquity of pimps > and procurers who victimized these women. They constructed what > Stauter-Halsted designates a "shadow state," building de facto social > welfare institutions in an ostensibly apolitical field tolerated by > the imperial powers. In doing so, they laid the groundwork for the > rebirth of the Polish state. The eighth chapter examines the role of > physicians, key props of the regulation system, and the ninth chapter > addresses the rising influence of a eugenics discourse in the Polish > lands in the years before the First World War. > > In her final chapter, Stauter-Halsted traces the legacies of these > debates in the newly independent Polish state between 1919 and 1939. > If discussions immediately before the war had prepared the ground for > subsequent transformations, the devastations of war, ongoing economic > turmoil, and renewed fears of venereal diseases provided the > immediate impetus for the broad reconceptualization of the prostitute > as a member of the nation rather than an outsider to it. And yet, > despite their role instigating this shift, the feminist and > eugenicist reformers failed to push through a shared abolitionist > agenda. Stauter-Halsted lays the blame for this failure on the > political dysfunction of the new state. This is one of the less > convincing arguments of the book, confined as it is to what reads > almost as a coda. An attempt to do justice to this complex picture > would need to bring together the changing gender roles and shifting > migratory patterns of the interwar years, the waning prospects for > abolitionist activists in much of Europe in the 1930s, Poland's > shifting relationship with the League of Nations, the reregulation of > prostitution in Nazi Germany (viewed by parts of the Polish political > class as inspiration until late in the decade), and the legacies of a > Polish reform movement that evolved, as Stauter-Halsted so > convincingly demonstrates, in opposition to state actors. > > While Stauter-Halsted's command of the scholarship on prostitution, > trafficking, and related fields ranges across boundaries and periods, > the book's focus is decidedly national. This is a reflection at one > level of the book's subject matter. As Stauter-Halsted writes in the > introduction, historical writing is invariably shaped by the > preoccupations of the social actors studied, and many of her subjects > clearly thought intensely about the future of the Polish nation. Yet > at times, Stauter-Halsted also imposes this national identity on her > subjects. For instance, she uses a study by "a Dr. Bonhoffer in > Wrocław" to illustrate the integration into Polish medical > discourses of Western European ideas about heredity and prostitution > (p. 298). He makes an odd choice as a representative of Polish > medical thought. The now-Polish city of Wrocław was then Breslau, > one of the most important cities in the German Empire, and the doctor > in question was most likely the German psychiatrist Karl Bonhoeffer, > father of the pastor and later anti-Nazi dissident, Dietrich > Bonhoeffer. Such missteps are rare--and indeed, elsewhere she refers > to Bonhoffer as a "German psychiatrist" (p. 281)--but this example > underscores the challenges facing a book on prostitution in Poland at > a time when no Polish state existed. > > While Stauter-Halsted skillfully depicts the way that debates about > gender, sexuality, and ethnicity blurred the moral boundaries of the > nation, she seems to take for granted the existence of physical > boundaries, though without maps it is not clear to the reader > precisely where they lay. And by prioritizing the Polish national > identity among the figures in her book, she risks reproducing the > national lens that she seeks to problematize. Many of these experts > were not only part of a Polish reading and writing class, but also > those of the German, Russian, and Habsburg empires. Imperial networks > of professionals and activists, which would have included some of > these "Polish" figures, would have developed distinct approaches to > the problems associated with prostitution in these years. Poland, as > the only territory divided between these three great European land > empires of the late ninteenth century, might provide new insights > into the divergences and commonalities between different European > imperialisms and their influence on national thought of subject > groups. > > If anything, this criticism underscores the way that the book's > shortcomings, as well as its strengths, ought to stimulate further > research. As it is, _The Devil's Chain_ achieves a great deal, > bringing together a wealth of material and themes into a compelling, > persuasive, and novel account of Poland's development in the late > nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book should stand as a > model for studies of other national contexts. It deserves a wide > readership, both among experts in European history and among scholars > of prostitution, migration, and sex trafficking.__ > > Citation: David Petruccelli. Review of Stauter-Halsted, Keely, _The > Devil's Chain: Prostitution and Social Control in Partitioned > Poland_. H-Poland, H-Net Reviews. October, 2018. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=50893 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -- _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
