In his book, White Slave Crusades: Race Gender and Anti-Vice Activism 1887-1917, Brian Donovan analyzes the role of the white slavery narratives and anti-vice movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the construction of racial boundaries and inequalities in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. Donovan centers on sexuality and gender as explanations for the cultural construction of race, racial categories, and inequalities rather than studying race as an independent category. Thus, this book challenges contemporary scholarship on racial inequality by underlining “the ontological relationship between race, gender, and sexuality and the interconnections between material inequality and culture (p. 132).”
Donovan approaches …show more content…
Different versions of this story were used by various crusaders to pursue a wide range of political projects ranging from women’s suffrage to restricting immigration (p. 2). Donovan adroitly shows how race was socially constructed through these white slavery narratives to create and strengthen racial hierarchies and inequalities in the early twentieth century American society.
In the first two chapters, Donovan introduces his intersectional theoretical approach to studying white slavery and mentions the cultural power of the white slavery genre in social formation of race in the early twentieth century United States. In the following chapters, Donovan portrays the accounts of several crusaders against white slavery by implicitly indicating how they described white slavery as a problem in different cities, its causes, and its possible solutions. For example, the Woman 's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) started a crusade against white slavery by investigating prostitution in lumber camps in Wisconsin and Michigan. By emphasizing the …show more content…
Even though Donovan says that he uses various documents, such as speeches, books, pamphlets, and organizational and legal records (p. 4), these sources limit our views to the narratives of the reformers. Due to a lack of personal accounts of the sex workers of white slavery, these white slaves are almost voiceless in the book, unless the reformers spoke for them. Moreover, Donovan could have given more space to discussions about how the public received and responded the crusaders’ ideas. Furthermore, the book inadequately covers the historical context of the Progressive Era, disregarding non-expert readers of the book. Despite these weaknesses, White Slave Crusades: Race Gender and Anti-Vice Activism 1887-1917 is a valuable contribution to social and cultural history of the United States regarding the historical and trans-regional boundaries of racial formation during the Progressive
Donovan approaches …show more content…
Different versions of this story were used by various crusaders to pursue a wide range of political projects ranging from women’s suffrage to restricting immigration (p. 2). Donovan adroitly shows how race was socially constructed through these white slavery narratives to create and strengthen racial hierarchies and inequalities in the early twentieth century American society.
In the first two chapters, Donovan introduces his intersectional theoretical approach to studying white slavery and mentions the cultural power of the white slavery genre in social formation of race in the early twentieth century United States. In the following chapters, Donovan portrays the accounts of several crusaders against white slavery by implicitly indicating how they described white slavery as a problem in different cities, its causes, and its possible solutions. For example, the Woman 's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) started a crusade against white slavery by investigating prostitution in lumber camps in Wisconsin and Michigan. By emphasizing the …show more content…
Even though Donovan says that he uses various documents, such as speeches, books, pamphlets, and organizational and legal records (p. 4), these sources limit our views to the narratives of the reformers. Due to a lack of personal accounts of the sex workers of white slavery, these white slaves are almost voiceless in the book, unless the reformers spoke for them. Moreover, Donovan could have given more space to discussions about how the public received and responded the crusaders’ ideas. Furthermore, the book inadequately covers the historical context of the Progressive Era, disregarding non-expert readers of the book. Despite these weaknesses, White Slave Crusades: Race Gender and Anti-Vice Activism 1887-1917 is a valuable contribution to social and cultural history of the United States regarding the historical and trans-regional boundaries of racial formation during the Progressive