New York, 1872, was a city convulsing with social upheaval and sexual revolution seven years after the Civil War. As the year began, the New York Times headlined four stories that symptomized the decay in public morals the editors so frequently decried: financier Jim Fisk was gunned down in a love triangle; suffragist and free love advocate Victoria Woodhull was running for president; vice hunter Anthony Comstock battled smut dealers poisoning children's minds; and abortionists we...

As 1872 opened, the New York Times headlined four stories that symptomized the decay in public morals that the editors so frequently decried: financier Jim Fisk was gunned down in a love triangle; suffragist and free-love advocate Victoria Woodhull was running for president; antivice activist Anthony Comstock battled smut dealers poisoning children’s minds; and abortionists were thriving. Throughout the year these stories intertwined in unimaginable ways, pulling in others, both f...