Historical Sex Work: New Contributions from History and Archaeology. KRISTEN R. FELLOWS, ANGELA J. SMITH, and ANNA M. MUNNS, editors. 2020. University Press of Florida, Gainesville. ix + 295 pp. $95.00 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-8130-6659-2 .

Historical Sex Work: New Contributions from History and Archaeology. KRISTEN R. FELLOWS, ANGELA J. SMITH, and ANNA M. MUNNS, editors. 2020. University Press of Florida, Gainesville. ix + 295 pp. $95.00 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-8130-6659-2.

A multidisciplinary team from the University of North Dakota developed the concept for this collection of essays. Kristen Fellows (an anthropologist), Angela Smith (an historian), and Anna Munns (an archaeologist) worked together in Fargo, North Dakota, to record, describe, and interpret archaeological remains associated with a local vice district. To understand their own work in a larger context, they collaborated with other professionals working on similar projects and compiled 10 excellent case studies inspired by either archaeological explorations or historical interpretations of sex work in several areas of the United States between 1850 and 1920.

Their compilation goes far beyond early interpretations of brothels through their material culture and documentary research, as pioneered in the 1990s by Donna Seifert in Washington, DC, and Julia Costello in Los Angeles, California. Although this volume devotes a chapter each to similar districts in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and Boston, most of the studies focus on the relatively smaller metropolises of Fargo, North Dakota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Sand Point, Idaho.

The volume is neatly divided...