Moral Divide: Mujeres Públicas and the Formation of the U.S.-Mexico Border

The United States-Mexico border has been a contested space and a political and ideological apparatus since the early twentieth century.While today we think of the border as a method to exclude people from the United States, the earliest curfews at the line between the two countries were designed to keep Americans within their territorial boundaries and reinforce the moral geography of the United States. In Moral Divide Catherine Christensen Gwin sheds new light on a largely forgotten chapter in the history of the U.S.-Mexico border, when it was a place of agency among Euro-American clubwomen reformers and sex workers.White women in California's Progressive movement sowed panic over prostitution, pushing American sex workers into the vice districts of Mexico, where American pleasure seekers followed.In response, clubwomen initiated a crusade to control U.S. citizens and their pursuit of illicit leisure in Mexico.These ideals of morality were used to enforce border restrictions and devel