Crossing over the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act (Worlds of Desire: the Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender & Culture)

Langum, David J.

ISBN 10: 0226468801 / ISBN 13: 9780226468808

Editore: University of Chicago Press, 1994

Riguardo questo articolo

Good condition. Good dust jacket. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains.

Codice articolo F17B-04179

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Crossing over the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act (Worlds of Desire: the Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender & Culture)
• Editore: University of Chicago Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 1994
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0226468801
• ISBN 13: 9780226468808
• Rilegatura: Rilegato
• Condizione: Good
• Condizione della sovraccoperta: sovraccoperta

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Crossing over the Line describes the folly of the Mann Act of 1910--a United States law which made travel from one state to another by a man and a woman with the intent of committing an immoral act a major crime. Spawned by a national wave of "white slave trade" hysteria, the Act was created by the Congress of the United States as a weapon against forced prostitution.

This book is the first history of the Mann Act's often bizarre career, from its passage to the amendment that finally laid it low. In David J. Langum's hands, the story of the Act becomes an entertaining cautionary tale about the folly of legislating private morality.

Langum recounts the colorful details of numerous court cases to show how enforcement of the Act mirrored changes in America's social attitudes. Federal prosecutors became masters in the selective use of the Act: against political opponents of the government, like Charlie Chaplin; against individuals who eluded other criminal charges, like the Capone mobster "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn; and against black men, like singer Chuck Berry and boxer Jack Johnson, who dared to consort with white women. The Act engendered a thriving blackmail industry and was used by women like Frank Lloyd Wright's wife to extort favorable divorce settlements.

Informazioni sull?autore

David J. Langum is professor of law at Cumberland School of Law of Samford University.