William W. Sanger

Born in 1819, William W. Sanger was an American physician who became known for studying social and medical questions that many of his contemporaries preferred to avoid. He practiced in New York and wrote at a time when doctors were often drawn into debates about poverty, disease, sexuality, and public policy.

He is best known for The History of Prostitution, a substantial 19th-century work that examined prostitution through statistics, case histories, and historical research. The book grew out of an official investigation in New York, and it helped make his name as a serious, if controversial, observer of urban life.

Sanger died in 1872. Although some of his assumptions reflect the attitudes of his century, his writing remains of interest to readers studying the history of medicine, public health, and social reform in America.