| Book Reviews | The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 131.4

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| Book Reviews | The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 131.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Reviews

Sex among the Rabble: An Intimate History of Gender and Power in the Age of Revolution, Philadelphia, 1730–1830. By Clare A. Lyons. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. xii, 420 pp. Illustrations, appendix, notes, manuscript bibliography, index. Cloth, $55; paper, $22.50.)

Forget about hippies. The sexual revolution that took place in Philadelphia nearly two hundred years earlier makes the 1960s appear tame. The evidence of a sexually permissive culture is plentiful: bastardy rates skyrocketed, prostitution flourished, and adultery became an increasingly viable option. Prostitutes were visibly identifiable, walking the streets soliciting clients, and bawdy houses could be found in nearly every neighborhood. There was no shame. One prostitute wrote that her life and occupation were "perfectly agreeable" to her and that she was "happy and contented" (p. 331). An elite gentleman who frequented prostitutes reputedly left his horse tied to a post outside of a bawdy house "so that everyone knows when he is there and exactly how long he stays" (p. 279). The city did not mount an organized attempt to eliminate prostitution—or fornication, bastardy, or adultery, for that matter. Such "nonmarital sexual behavior" was rarely criminally prosecuted. Officials relied on individuals to file charges in morals cases and for the most part, Philadelphians of the revolutionary era could not be bothered. In this regard, they were quite different from their rural neighbors.

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