Empire of Purity: The History of Americans' Global War on Prostitution

by Eva Payne

Between the 1870s and 1930s, American social reformers, working closely with the US government, transformed sexual vice into an international political and humanitarian concern. As these activists worked to eradicate prostitution and trafficking, they promoted sexual self-control for both men and women as a cornerstone of civilization and a basis of American exceptionalism. Empire of Purity traces the history of these efforts, showing how the policing and penalization of sexuality was used to justify American interventions around the world.

Eva Payne describes how American reformers successfully pushed for international anti-trafficking agreements that mirrored US laws, calling for states to criminalize prostitution and restrict migration, and harming the very women they claimed to protect. She argues that Americans' ambitions to reshape global sexual morality and law advanced an ideology of racial hierarchy that viewed women of color, immigrants, and sexual minorities as dangerous vectors of disease.

Drawing on archives in Europe, the United States, and Latin America, Empire of Purity ties the war on sexual vice to American imperial ambitions and a politicization of sexuality that continues to govern both domestic and international policy today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Politics, Sex Work

1 pages, Audio CD

Published May 27, 2025

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, shocked but also not to find out that the crusade against sex workers’ rights is a largely American endeavor. While the rest of the information wasn’t necessarily shocking for myself, I think this will be my new recommendation for anyone who’s looking to form their own opinion on sex work. Right now, the conversations around the topic are so deeply troubling. “Is sex work compensated rape?” “Are all men who consume sex work predators?” “Is sex work feminist?” Truth be told, it doesn’t really matter. This book proves that sex work is a symptom of our society and one cannot regulate or moralize it away. As far as I’m aware, there’s never been a society that operated without it. Why would your idea of a socialist/marxist/christian/etc society be any different? (Spoiler: It wouldn’t.) I really love how Eva Payne breaks down how certain words are used to shame, belittle, and isolate sex workers from the conversations around their own labor (abolition, trafficking, etc) and her ending with acknowledging how sex workers have some of the most sophisticated mutual aid networks out of any group because of that isolation.

To get on my soap box, I am fiercely protective over this community because when I was young, and largely alone in a big city and I was physically harmed, a woman who was a sex worker aided me. Through getting to know her, and her community, I was so impressed by how kind and welcoming these people were despite leftists and conservatives and progressives and the far right painting them as dirty, fallen, and expendable. That kindness and warmth didn’t come from nothing. It came from being persecuted and harassed for the sin of surviving when society would be too glad to leave you behind. Payne highlights that, in this work, quite beautifully.

[Wisconsin Alumni]

Eva Payne ’06
Author

From the author:
Between the 1870s and 1930s, American social reformers, working closely with the U.S. government, transformed sexual vice into an international political and humanitarian concern. As these activists worked to eradicate prostitution and trafficking, they promoted sexual self-control for both men and women as a cornerstone of civilization and a basis of American exceptionalism. Empire of Purity traces the history of these efforts, showing how the policing and penalization of sexuality was used to justify American interventions around the world.

Eva Payne describes how American reformers successfully pushed for international anti-trafficking agreements that mirrored US laws, calling for states to criminalize prostitution and restrict migration, and harming the very women they claimed to protect. She argues that Americans’ ambitions to reshape global sexual morality and law advanced an ideology of racial hierarchy that viewed women of color, immigrants, and sexual minorities as dangerous vectors of disease. Payne tells the stories of the sex workers themselves, revealing how these women’s experiences defy the dichotomies that have shaped American cultural and legal conceptions of prostitution and trafficking, such as choice and coercion, free and unfree labor, and white sexual innocence and the assumed depravity of nonwhites.

Drawing on archives in Europe, the United States, and Latin America, Empire of Purity ties the war on sexual vice to American imperial ambitions and a politicization of sexuality that continues to govern both domestic and international policy today.

[Morag Forbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook: As a result of biased US led investigations in the 1930s across 60 countries all migration of women linked to sex work or prostitution came under the heading of trafficking in the League of Nation’s definition. This rid women of any choices, declared prostitution fundamentally immoral and so stamped the American anti-sex work attitudes across the western world. We still live with the consequences of this today. However the book shows that women did not lack agency and endeavours to tell their stories. A voice is given to a group too often voiceless.
I guess I should not be surprised given the title of the book but it is a very in depth focus on a very specific period. Personally I would have preferred a much more holistic overview covering a wider time period. Having the narrow focus meant there were few opportunities for comparisons on how things could have been done differently.