Turpi traffics, in a book the history of the first globalization of prostitution

Marguerite, Mariella, Virginia. Through their stories, the historical Laura Schettini tells in 'Turpi Traffici' (Biblink editions), the story of the first globalization of prostitution seen from the perspective of the Italian case. It is the story of Giuseppa, Virginia and many others that since the end of the nineteenth century have embarked from Kingdom ports to go to work in brothels in Egypt, Libya, Malta, but also that of Marguerite, one of the numerous 'foreign prostitutes' working in Italy in the 1930s.

It's still. It is the story of Mariella, forced by her husband Beniamino to prostitute herself pregnant in the US province at the beginning of the last century, or of Francesco, who on the eve of the Second World War recruited young natives to prostitute in his cabarets in Panama, and of Max, unscrupulous exploiter of naive lovers from one end of the ocean to the other. It is the story of a passionate diplomat committed to the League of Nations for the repression of the 'white woman trade', but also of police officers, consuls and ministers concerned about national reputation.

It is a story of prostitution, of migration, of work, built through recourse to original sources and which covers a wide chronological period, where interest in personal events is intertwined with that for policies, diplomatic initiatives and measures of police. A book that tells, in a precise and detailed manner, the complexity of the world of prostitution in its becoming a transnational market, its links with migration processes and colonial expansion, its relevance as a national political issue.