The Politics of Trafficking: The First International Movement to Combat the Sexual Exploitation of Women
"This is the first book to provide a rich analysis of the history of trafficking and is therefore a must-read for undergraduate and graduate students in sociology, gender studies, and history. Limoncelli's multicountry analysis in the metropole and its colonial territories is impressive. As one of the first books to provide us with a historical backdrop to the contemporary debates occurring between scholars of sex work and sex trafficking, the book is extremely timely."—Kimberly Kay Hoang,Gender & Society"Limoncelli provides a historical explanation of how female victimhood became the predominant framework for understanding the problem of trafficking. The tension between seeing prostitution as an issue of women's subjugation or as an employment opportunity . . . is one that antitrafficking advocates have been trying to resolve for over a century."—Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Maria Cecilia Hwang, and Heather Ruth Lee,Signs: Journal of Women & Culture in Society"Overall, the book constitutes a major contribution to the literature on humanitarian antitrafficking movements. It pays particular attention to the way global movements have their effects in local contexts. As Limoncelli demonstrates, the adoption and implementation of measures to curb trafficking depended on specic histories, including the state's own history with prostitution and immigration, its religious and ethnic composition, and its colonial history, as well as the status of indigenous antitrafficking and antivice groups."—Gretchen Soderlund,American Journal of Sociology"This fascinating study of trafficking in women, primarily in Europe, addresses the dimensions of gender, sexuality, nationalism, power of states, and international social movements. Sociologist Limoncelli provides an extremely thorough (and fascinating) discussion of the general history of trafficking for prostitution and supplements that with studies of Dutch, French, and Italian cases... Highly recommended."—P. LeClerc, St. Lawrence University,Choice"Limoncelli provides a necessary and enlightening history for understanding the present world of women's sex work and for thinking about the role transnational non-governmental organizations play in making policy in conjunction with both states and the United Nations. No one interested in the fraught struggles over sex work and trafficking can afford to ignore this history." —Leila J. Rupp, University of California, Santa Barbara