Policing Sexuality: The Mann Act and the Making of the FBI

"Brilliant. . . . [A] major contribution to the histories of sexuality and government surveillance" (Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Most Famous Man in America).

America's first anti–sex trafficking law, the 1910 Mann Act, made it illegal to transport women over state lines for prostitution "or any other immoral purpose." It was meant to protect women and girls from being seduced or sold into sexual slavery. But, as Jessica Pliley illustrates, its enforcement resulted ...