The Devil's Chain

By Keely Stauter-Halsted,

Book cover of The Devil's Chain: Prostitution and Social Control in Partitioned Poland

Book description

In the half-century before Poland's long-awaited political independence in 1918, anxiety surrounding the country's burgeoning sex industry fueled nearly constant public debate. The Devil's Chain is the first book to examine the world of commercial sex throughout the partitioned Polish territories, uncovering a previously hidden conversation about sexuality, gender propriety,…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Devil's Chain as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Who would have thought that late-nineteenth-century Poles’ preoccupation with the problem of prostitution could reveal so much about the Polish mindset? Concerns over the sex industry arose during a period of rapid change when there was no Polish state. Poles voiced their concerns about their nation’s future—and their womenfolk. A historian at the height of her powers, Keely Stauter-Halsted skillfully shows how debates on prostitution and an obsession with the bodies of impoverished women reflected a variety of visions of a future Poland.

Want books like The Devil's Chain?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Devil's Chain.

Browse books like The Devil's Chain

Book cover of If the Walls Could Speak: Inside a Women's Prison in Communist Poland
Book cover of Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities: Race Science and the Making of Polishness on the Fringes of the German Empire, 1840-1920
Book cover of On Civilization's Edge: A Polish Borderland in the Interwar World

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,188

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Poland, prostitution, and the Holocaust?

Poland 118 books
Prostitution 79 books
The Holocaust 414 books