Harlots, Whores & Hackabouts

A History of Sex for Sale

By: Kate Lister

Narrated by: Kate Lister

Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

The history of selling sex is a hidden one—and too often its practitioners are pushed to the margins of history. This book redresses the balance, revealing the history of the sex trade through the eyes of sex workers, from medieval streets to Wild West saloons, and from brothels to state bedrooms.

Harlots, Whores & Hackabouts' chapters are structured thematically in a broadly chronological order, each one introducing a lively cast of complex and entertaining characters operating in an array of different periods, locations, and settings. In ancient Mesopotamia, the harlot Shamhat was powerful and respected, able to civilize the wild man Enkidu through her charms. In medieval London, Elizabeth Moryng serviced religious clergy under the guise of an embroidery business, though she was eventually jailed for being a prolific panderer and bawd. In the hedonistic floating world of Edo, Japan, Kabuki actresses and geishas entertained and pleasured their patrons. Lister's engaging and illuminating tales invite listeners to look, listen, and reconsider everything they thought they knew about the world's oldest profession. Together, these captivating tales of sex workers from around the world and throughout history provide a powerful context to contemporary debates about sexuality and the empowerment of women.

Contains mature themes.

©2021 Thames & Hudson Ltd, London; Text copyright 2021 by Kate Lister (P)2022 Tantor

10/10!!

An excellent book from one of my favorite authors (as well as podcasters!). I recommend all of Lister’s various work. I only hope that we can hope to see another book soon (fingers crossed).

Fantastic and Compelling

I love this book, it gave such an informative view of the history of sex work. The art was also so well curated (I read along with the physical copy). Recommending to everyone!

surprisingly good!

I didnt expect to like this book so much. It's not meant to be gossipy or funny, as most history books about the topic are. instead the writer carefully maps out the history of prostitution with great respect to the victims, workers, and accused and the premise that regulation and laws only exacerbate the core issues. GREAT READ!

Fascinating and well written for the modern reader

Where was this book when I was looking through the stacks of my college library for the smallest scraps of information on prostitution for my paper on social structures!? Very thought provoking and informative, and very much entertaining. Thanks, Kate!

Female forward!

It was written very well with a female perspective, but was not shy to include LGBTQ plus and men’s point of view as it pertain to not only sex but sex work highly recommend

Just wonderful !

Great history lesson and super fascinating!! Totally recommend if you have any interest in the subject !

Really lacking a history beyond did you they did this in 1886?

This book is indeed very short. At 6 hours long it is just basically a brief telling of when sex work was legal in western society and the reasons why it happened or failed. The perfect example is the discussion of England and its various changing positions including state control of the trade and then its attempt to wipe it out.

There is a brief discussion on Ancient Greek and Italian era but besides that it lacks non western societies. The book talks about China and Japan (no mention of Africa) but interesting to note that sex work there is talked about in the negative manner (as it was) but the author is clearly trying to portrait sex work as positive thing regardless of the circumstances. A good example is the WWII section where the author tries to show that the victims of the war were the soliciting women who were scapegoats of the men despite them doing what the French allowed but now was against since the Germans controlled their trade. But no mention of Nazi sex slavery or assault or Scandinavian selective breeding or Japanese comfort women. Really trafficking isnt really mentioned. Also sex work and war is only mentioned during this WWII chapter (2nd to last chapter in the book). Trust me, they go together for a long while (heck one can easily dedicate a whole book on this alone).

The book does have have its merits. Notable figures and suppress/ignored times or laws are discussed. Really this feels like a primer, a short introduction but the book clearly wants to show sex work as nothing but a positive thing that women willing do, ignoring a complete view that goes both ways. Don’t let this be the lone book you read about the subject, especially if you see the book’s length or flashy artwork.

Very interesting topic just a little dry..

I was very excited to delve into this book and learn the history behind “the oldest profession” but I felt the author was so focused on dates and times and the legal actions she missed the human interest focus and it was very dry. My mind wandered while listening and honestly was bored several times with the repeating of dates, legal action, etc. Based on the summary, I was looking for more day to day stories and insight into the lives of these women through the years. Very thorough and interesting though and great historical information!

Wanted more from this

Was top short and didn’t dive deep enough. Great as a starter but not a meal.