History 2181A/B Lecture 4: History 2181 Lecture 4
3 Feb 2019
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3 main ideas: obscenity & censorship, prostitution & venereal disease, and eugenics & reproduction. As a result, many social problems = poverty, slums, overcrowding, disease, addictions, crime, unemployment. = connected to issues of sex & sexuality. White middle-class social reformers = clergy, doctors, social workers, privileged housewives: blamed many of these problems on the working class & immigrants, not industrial capitalism, they"re seen as morally inferior & problems were their fault. White middle-class social reformers wanted to improve the urban environment & quality of life. Obscenity & censorship, prostitution & venereal disease, and eugenics & reproduction were all problems the white middle class social reformers were trying to solve. Anthony comstock (1844-1915) = white middle class social reformer, well-intentioned but went about his belief system in an extreme/radical way, worked as a postal inspector in the 1870s. People were concerned about sexually explicit content in literature/mail that was in the public sphere.
