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Sending rude mail was dealt a devastating blow on 3rd March, 1873, when the campaign against pornography, reproductive health, birth control, and abortion led by self-appointed \u2018Special Agent\u2019 of the US Postal Service Anthony Comstock went all the way to Washington.\xa0\nAfter the \u2018Comstock Act\u2019 became law, books were banned, \u2018obscene\u2019 pamphlets were destroyed, and, in Comstock\u2019s home state of Connecticut, birth control was banned - even within a marriage.\nIn this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover what Comstock thought of the women he met at the White House; reveal his earliest crackdowns on licentiousness; and uncover George Bernard Shaw\u2019s trolling of \u2018Comstockery\u2019 in the New York press\u2026\n#1800s #Politics #Publishing\nFurther Reading:\n\u2022 \u2018How an Anti-Obscenity Crusader Policed America's Mail for Decades\u2019 (HISTORY, 2022): https://www.history.com/news/comstock-act-1873-obscenity-contraception-mail\n\u2022 \u2018Anthony Comstock's "Chastity" Laws\u2019 (PBS American Experience): https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-anthony-comstocks-chastity-laws/#:~:text=In%20the%20late%201860s%2C%20Comstock%20began%20supplying%20the,the%20contraceptive%20industry%20as%20one%20of%20his%20targets.\n\u2022 \u2018The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age\u2019 (National Archives, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9IS0S-B5HU\nWe'll be back on Monday - unless you join\xa0\U0001f334CLUB RETROSPECTORS\U0001f334, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!\nPlus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.\nJoin now via\xa0Apple Podcasts\xa0or\xa0Patreon.\xa0Thanks!\n\xa0\nThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.\nTheme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.\nCopyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2023.\n Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices