Soiled Doves: Prostitution in the Early West

I just took a trip out west and this book was recommended by one of the tour guides. It was a good read after seeing the land.

The Soiled Doves of the Old West were humans too, though ignored in most history books. This scholarly effort fills in their part of the history. I read some reviewers' belittling comments about the author's lack of skill with words, but they must be blind to the story if they felt that way. It is engaging just because it is about riveting events and personalities during settlement of the West.

Fascinating stories of the lives of so many of the 'long ago' days and how these women made their livings are in this book. The book is a collection of the women who are in historical accounts of the 1800s and early 1900s, compiled into this book.Reading this book gives one a deep empathy and understanding and yet, amazement at the lives of these various woman of those times and places of the Early West. The women chose difficult lives and yet, in most of the cases, they chose. Only the San Francisco Chinese section tells you of the slavery and unbelievable lives young girls were thrust into by their own kind, the Chinese, yet, reading of the white lady who saved so many was fascinating, and heartening, too (The first Chinese woman to graduate from Stanford was one that the lady had saved.....)If you find the history of the 'Wild West' interesting, read this book. I gained a new appreciation for the struggles these, rarely, heard of women, went through, just trying to survive.

You get a great idea of how women were treated in the old west.

I absolutely loved this book. I first stumbled across this in a gift store and then subsequently purchased more copies to gift to people. I love that there is legitimate historical information that highlights the different aspects of Prostitution in the Early West. I plan on purchasing all of Anne's books now that I realize she wrote more of them. Highly recommend.

Some very good stories about a few of the more famous prostitutes in the Old West. However, the narrator's bias comes through in the prose and shows disrespect for the women discussed.At times, the narration is even inconsistent in order to do so. For example, in somes places, the narration states that the working women didn't save any money for retirement so they could spend all their money on clothes and perfume. In another place, it calls the women "greedy" who take extra work to earn more than they needed for basic necessities. The narration calls the women and their attempts to make the best of their situation "pathetic" at least twice.I picked up this book to learn about the lives of the average working woman in that time. I understand that historical records of those women are probably few and far between, I was disappointed nonetheless due to how the book is presented. Most of the book focuses on the madams and a couple of women who got out of the life and tried to re-enter society.Structurally, the book is a little chaotic. A few smaller stories are repeated and the information doesn't seem well-organized. The placement of content within some of the chapters didn't make sense.All that said, I was happy to read about some of the conditions of working women during that time. I especially liked the accounts of how society looked upon these women who brought in the money that allowed their societies to function. I just feel like this information could have been handled with more empathy, or at least less bias.

I bought this book after touring LuLu’s Bordello in Goldfield Ghost Town, AZ. It is a well researched description of the forms of prostitution practiced in the Old West - from parlor house madam to Chinese sex slave. The photo documentation and primary newspaper “clippings” provide vivid details for countless stories of real women who practiced “the trade,” including the loneliness and insecurity that came with being forever outcasts of respectable society.

I keep noticing this book on the shelves of gift shops during a trip to Tombstone AZ, I saw it for sale in many stores and just did not buy it. So a couple weeks later I checked to see if Amazon had it and there it was, and cheaper by quite a bit. I do love reading about history and finding out the truth about the past and this book was very informative about the "Ladies of the Night" back in the late 1800's and early 1900's. In the western movies they glamourize the profession; it was a very sad and lonely life for most of the ladies and their only means of survival. Very good ready.

Being interested in characters from the old west, such as Wyatt Earp, whose lives involved associations with prostitutes, I was interested to see how these girls featured in the lives of these heroes and villians. But I was very disappointed. I learned nothing from this book. The book was more like "An Everyday Story" and contained no really interesting stories. If I could get my money back, I would.

A really interesting subject, but it was so badly written that it barely skimmed the surface of the subject. The author's inability to tackle this head-on in an adult way, and just refer to the girls as 'soiled' made it feel that it was written for 10 year olds. Interesting, but I felt it was all very bland and formulaic.