Table of contents : Content: 1. The whore of Babylon -- 2. Patriarchs and priestesses -- 3. Fallen angels -- 4. Greek liberalism -- 5. Hindu ambiguity -- 6. Rome's daughters -- 7. Repentant sinners -- 8. Tang China's pleasure women -- 9. Muhammad's women -- 10. Guilds and cloisters, rogues and rapists -- 11. Celestial whores -- 12. The war of the roses [running title: The war of the rose] -- 13. Pox, punishment, and penitence -- 14. Splendor and misery of the courtesans -- 15. Love in the South Seas -- 16. Fanny Hill -- 17. Hara-kiri -- 18. The penetration of Africa -- 19. Nana and her times -- 20. Moral crusaders -- 21. Sex in the Wild West -- 22. Imperial virtue -- 23. Tango! -- 24. Ottoman footnote -- 25. The white slave trade -- 26. Kamikaze and comfort -- 27. Call girls -- 28. Academic sex tourism -- 29. Feminism and the sex workers' movement.