Introduction: the revolt of the women --
Part I. Prostitution, social science, and venereal disease. The common prostitute in Victorian Britain --
Social Science and and the great social evil --
Venereal disease --
Part II. The Contagious diseases acts, regulationists, and repealers. The Contagious Diseases Acts and their advocates --
The repeal campaign --
The leadership of the Ladies' National Association --
Class and gender conflict within the repeal movement --
Part III. Two case studies: Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts. Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts --
The repeal campaign in Plymouth and Southampton, 1870-4 --
The making of an outcast gorup: prostitutes and working women in Plymouth and Southampton --
The hospitals --
The local repeal campaign, 1874-86 --
Epilog [sic] --
Notes --
Selected bibliography --
Index

"The state regulation of prostitution, as established under the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866, and 1869, and the successful campaign for the repeal of the Acts, provide the framework for this study of alliances between prostitutes and feminists and their clashes with medical authorities and police. This book makes a major contribution to women's history, working-class history, and the social history of medicine and politics. It demonstrates how feminists and others mobilized over sexual questions, how public discourse on prostitution redefined sexuality in the late nineteenth century, and how the state helped to recast definitions of social deviance."--Publisher description.