{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03755458515283843, 'fraction_numerical': 0.029694323144104803, 'mean_word_length': 5.063492063492063, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 1, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top. By Janet M. Davis. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. xiii + 329 pp. Index, notes, bibliography, photos. Cloth, $49.95; paper, $19.95. ISBN: cloth 0-807-82724-X; paper 0-807-85399-2

Nichols draws his research extensively from primary materials, and he refers appropriately to the secondary literature on the history of prostitution. In the process, he elucidates the complexities of the profession and its interconnections with the business community. Numerous business and political leaders joined prominent women involved in the sex trade to defend the regulation of prostitution as a positive good to the community. Nichols demonstrates how local economies and businesses adjusted to the Victorian compromise with public sexuality when it served larger social goals, such as "proving" how American Salt Lake City was and thereby deflecting Gentile concerns about polygamy. Well organized and written in an accessible style, this book is recommended for specialists in prostitution studies, western communities in the United States, and criminal-law history.