TALKING POLITICS

Pornography and the Post Office

Dec 26, 2019

Anthony Comstock, the man who tried to stamp out pornography in the final decades of the 19th century, used the US Postal Service as his weapon. Gary Gerstle tells his story, exploring the power of the Post Office, the historical suppression of vice in the US, and the challenges of regulating information in the internet age.

30:20

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Episode guests

Anthony Comstock

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Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Anthony Comstock used the US Postal Service as a national censorship mechanism to regulate and censor materials he deemed immoral.

The story of Anthony Comstock highlights the conflict between moralizers and free thinkers, as well as the challenges faced by the federal government in regulating content in the modern information age.

Deep dives

The Rise of Anthony Comstock

Anthony Comstock, born into a devout Protestant family, grew up with a deep concern for the moral crisis he believed was engulfing America. He took it upon himself to eliminate what he considered to be obscene material, leading him to become a powerful figure in the fight against immorality. Through his position as the inspector for the U.S. Postal Service, Comstock had the authority to inspect and confiscate anything he deemed obscene passing through the post office. Supported by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, he successfully lobbied Congress to pass the Comstock Act in 1873, which defined obscenity broadly and aimed to eliminate knowledge about sex, including birth control and abortion.

Introduction

3min

The Passage of the Broad Comstock Act in the 1870s

2min

The Historical Suppression of Vice in the United States

4min

The Power of the Post Office: Regulating Vice and Censorship

21min

Announcement of Next Week's Episode and Podcast Recommendations

2min

Gary Gerstle tells the story of Anthony Comstock, the man who tried to stamp out pornography in the final decades of the nineteenth century, using the US Postal Service as his weapon. Where he succeeded and how he ultimately failed still has echoes now, even in the age of the internet.

Talking Points:

States were exempted from the Bill of Rights from the 1790s until essentially the 1960s.

Some states pursued extraordinary influence over the lives of their citizens.
There were always states that were more liberal and more repressive.
For many Americans, the government was the state government.

Anthony Comstock was a moral crusader who used the postal service as the vehicle of anti-vice politics at the federal level.

The federal government can only exercise the powers mentioned in the constitution.
The constitution doesn’t give the government the power to regulate morals but it does give the government power over the post office.
The post office was a large and efficacious bureaucracy.
Any mail traveling between states was carried by a federal agency; Comstock seized upon this as a national censorship mechanism.

Today, the dynamics have largely reversed. Instead of seeing the federal government as a way to control states, today’s moralists want to punt things back to the states.

This has been particularly effective in the case of abortion.

Further Learning:

And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: lrb.co.uk/talking

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TALKING POLITICS

Pornography and the Post Office

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

The Rise of Anthony Comstock

The Power of the Postal Service

Shifts in Moral Climate and Government Power

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts