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The horror of slavery, says Kevin Bales, is "not confined to history." It is not only possible that slave labor is responsible for the shoes on your feet or your daily consumption of sugar, he writes, the products of forced labor filter even more quietly into a broad portion of daily Western life. "They made the bricks for the factory that made the TV you watch. In Brazil slaves made the charcoal that tempered the steel that made the springs in your car and the blade on your lawnmower.... Slaves keep your costs low and returns on your investments high."

The exhaustive research in Disposable People shows that at least 27 million people are currently enslaved around the world. Bales, considered the world's leading expert on contemporary slavery, reveals the historical and economic conditions behind this resurgence. From Thailand, Mauritania, Brazil, Pakistan, and India, Bales has gathered stories of people in unthinkable conditions, kept in bondage to support their owners' lives. Bales insists that even a small effort from a large number of people could end slavery, and devotes a large chapter to explaining the practical means by which this might be accomplished. "Are we willing to live in a world with slaves?" he asks. As a sign of his commitment, all his royalties from Disposable People will go toward the fight against slavery. --Maria Dolan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
No, University of Surrey lecturer Bales isn't reporting on wage slavery: the stories that slip into the newspaper now and then about workers in sneaker or soccer ball factories in Indonesia or Vietnam earning 20 cents or $1 a week. Bales means 27 million people held in chattel slavery, debt bondage, or contract slavery: "enslaved by violence and held against their wills for purposes of exploitation." Their masters he calls "slaveholders" because they don't claim to own their victims; they control their victims' lives and mobility and gain enormous profits from their labor. Bales investigated five case studies--prostitution in Thailand, water delivery in Mauritania, charcoal making in Brazil, brickmaking in Pakistan, and bonded labor in Indian agriculture--to trace the nature of modern slavery and compare its forms. Three factors explain the new slavery: the population explosion; economic globalization and modernized agriculture; and "the chaos of greed, violence, and corruption created by this economic change in many developing countries." Globalization ties us all to the new slavery, and Bales suggests what the reader can do. Mary Carroll --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews
A numbing indictment of our blindness to the new forms of slavery engendered by the global economy. Bales, a leading authority on this subject (Univ. of Surrey, England), defines slavery, quite specifically, as the ``total control of one person by another for the purpose of economic exploitation.'' The control is facilitated by violence and the foreclosure of personal freedom. He estimates, given this definition, that there are approximately 27 million slaves currently held in the world economy. One of the more virulent characteristics of this new slavery is a tendency to view slaves as relatively short-term investmentsreplacement is often cheaper than maintenance, thus the slaveholders will extract as much labor as possible, even if it means their victims will only last for several years of bondage. New slaveholders in the world economy also frequently insulate themselves against prosecution by maintaining fraudulent work contracts. Bales opens his essay with the story of Seba, a woman brought to France from Mali to serve as a house slave, but the book focuses primarily upon slavery in the third world. He describes the plight of child prostitutes in Thailand, slaves born under control of the White Moors in Mauritania, charcoal workers in Brazil, brick kiln operators in Pakistan, bonded farmers in India, and prisoners of war in Burma. He provides both personal accounts from the lives of individual slaves, and an overview of legal, political, and historical factors which influence the particular manifestation of slavery in a given locality. Bales makes a convincing argument that the new forms of slavery are directly related to trends in the global economy, and that opposition to slavery must also take the form of an international, global awareness of the situation. A powerful expos of the dirty little secret of the global village. (12 b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
Praise for the first edition: )

Times Higher Education Supplement
"At its best an empirically informed general discussion of slavery in the modern world economy." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The National Post (Canada)
"As fine and accessible a work of investigative reporting as any of the best that have appeared over the last decade. Serious, impassioned, and unflinching, he has told a story that is too often ignored, and that, as he points out, shames us all." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat
"If you read no other book this year, read this one." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Globe & Mail
"Kevin Bales knows pretty much all there is to know about slavery in the contemporary world. In Disposable People he parlays a combination of fact and indignation into a compelling indictment of an aspect of globalism most of us prefer not to think about. This is a timely and important expose. Bales has cast a little light into a very dark place. " --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Dallas Morning News
"An insightful overview [and] a powerful expos of human tragedy." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Richard Pierre Claude, editor of Human Rights Quarterly
Convincing, emotionally wrenching, and freighted with appropriate moral indignation, Kevin Bales's startling presentation shows us that while the general public is convinced slavery is a historical phenomenon of the ancient past . . . it is in actu-ality a widespread tragedy found worldwide and on a large scale. This book innova-tively and usefully describes the permutations of an ancient tradition as it exists in this modern day and age. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

David Brion Davis, Director, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery and Abolition, Yale University
A timely and fascinating book . . . of crucial importance. Few people realize that the increasing globalization of the economy has led to the use of coerced labor in many parts of the globe. . . . Bales has traveled widely and has gathered a great amount of shocking and disturbing information. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Kirkus Reviews
A numbing indictment of our blindness to the new forms of slavery. . . . A powerful expose of the dirty little secret of the global village. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Christian Science Monitor
A gripping account of the major forms slavery takes around the world today, introducing enslaved people, their families, and entire social strata deprived of the most basic rights. . . . A remarkably effective short course in the need for flexible approaches tailored to specific conditions, yet guided by broad, universal principles to target the underlying causes. . . . Avoiding easy moralism and sensationalism alike, it discloses the daily soul-destroying brutality of slavery on our planet today. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
Slavery is illegal throughout the world, yet more than twenty-seven million people are still trapped in one of history's oldest social institutions. Kevin Bales's disturbing story of contemporary slavery reaches from Pakistan's brick kilns and Thailand's brothels to various multinational corporations. His investigations reveal how the tragic emergence of a "new slavery" is inextricably linked to the global economy. This completely revised edition includes a new preface.

Card catalog description
Kevin Bales's disturbing investigation of conditions in Thailand, Mauritania, Brazil, Pakistan, India, and parts of America and Europe reveals the nature of the new slavery and how it has adapted to the global economy. But one thing remains the same: violence. People are still taken by force and held against their wills through fear. Bales interviews actual slaves, slaveholders, and public officials to reveal the lives of slaves, including enslaved brickmakers in Pakistan, sex slaves in Thailand, and domestic slaves in France. Throughout he uncovers the economic and social forces that sustain slavery, from the corruption of local governments to the complicity of multinational corporations. He pinpoints just who benefits from the incredible profits of the new slavery. And he shows how the lives of these slaves are bound by our own through our purchase of slave-made products or mutual funds that invest in companies using slave labor. In his conclusion, Bales offers suggestions for how individuals and governments can combat slavery and describes successful antislavery actions by international and local organizations. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap
"A well-researched, scholarly, and deeply disturbing exposé of modern-day slavery with well-thought-out strategies for what to do to combat this scourge. None of us is allowed the luxury of imagined impotence. We can do something about it."--Desmond Tutu

From the Back Cover
"A well-researched, scholarly, and deeply disturbing exposé of modern-day slavery with well-thought-out strategies for what to do to combat this scourge. None of us is allowed the luxury of imagined impotence. We can do something about it."-Desmond Tutu

About the Author
Kevin Bales is President of Free the Slaves, Washington, DC, (www.freetheslaves.net) and Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey Roehampton, England. He is the world's leading expert on contemporary slavery.