author
William W. Sanger
1819–1872
A New York City physician, he is best remembered for a wide-ranging nineteenth-century study of prostitution that drew on his medical work among the city’s poor. His writing captures both the social anxieties and the reforming spirit of his era.
1 Audiobook
The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World
by William W. Sanger
About the author
Born on August 10, 1819, in Hartford, Connecticut, William Wallace Sanger studied medicine first in Wheeling and then in New York, graduating from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1846. He went on to serve at Bellevue Hospital and became the first resident physician on Blackwell’s Island, where he worked closely with patients in public institutions.
That experience shaped the book he is known for today, The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects Throughout the World (1858). The work began as an official report for New York City’s Board of Alms-House Governors and brought together medical observation, statistics, and social commentary in an effort to examine prostitution as a public-health and social problem.
Sanger also wrote on public health and medicine more broadly, including material connected to cholera and city sanitation. He died in New York City on May 8, 1872. His work remains of interest not only for its subject matter, but also for what it reveals about nineteenth-century medicine, reform, and urban life.