The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi

by Luise White

Book Overview

"This history is . . . the first fully-fleshed story of African Nairobi in all of its complexity which foregrounds African experiences. Given the overwhelming white dominance in the written sources, it is a remarkable achievement."--Claire Robertson, International Journal of African Historical Studies

"White's book . . . takes a unique approach to a largely unexplored aspect of African History. It enhances our understanding of African social history, political economy, and gender studies. It is a book that deserves to be widely read."--Elizabeth Schmidt, American Historical Review

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226895076
• ISBN13: 9780226895079
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Still state-of-the-art African history after 10 years.

"The Comforts of Home" is a major work on Africa by any standard. By analyzing "prostitution" as domestic labor & tying it to urban history, White breaks new ground, avoiding the moralizing outlooks common to many studies of the subject. The book also displays the value of Africanists' interdisciplinary approach to history, especially in using evidence, not least because of her remarkable oral data collected under very demanding conditions. This book deserved, & won, the 1991 Herskovits Prize for best book from the African Studies Association. It is consistently readable and intellectually challenging.