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| Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy | 
 enlarge | Author: Kevin Bales
Publisher: University of California Press
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy New: $4.99
You Save: $12.96 (72%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $4.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (22 reviews)
Sales Rank: 257317
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: original
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 298
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0520224639
Dewey Decimal Number: 323
EAN: 9780520224636
ASIN: 0520224639
Publication Date: September 28, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Understanding Modern Slavery June 5, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The comparison that Bales' draws between the "new" slavery and the "old" slavery is the most striking revelation I have encountered yet. It is essential that people read this book to understand that slavery effects every person, either directly or indirectly, and to understand the extent to which both individuals and state government's help to perpetuate this socially constructed atrocity.
Bales gives an intimate account of slavery in different locations and the information that he presents is compelling, informative, and heartbreaking. Informed people of the world should pick up this book and begin to act.
Buy this book and see how slavery still exists in the World Today. April 27, 2007
As Bales himself points out, many people equivilate slavery with the kind that existed in the United States over 100 years ago. But that's only one tupe of slavery, thankfully long gone. However, slavery still exists in the world today and it is worse than ever. Bales book is englightening for those of us, like myself, who have trouble imagining where and how it still exists.
The book is mainly consisted of case studies, which serve as examples for each kind of slavery found in the world today. If you want to find out the social environments that allow for slavery to come into existence, then you are better of reading Bales' more in depth book "Understanding Slavery". But if you are just starting and want to know how slavery exists in the world today, this book is the one to get.
I'll admit, sometimes the writing of this book is a little redundant, as others have said, but more often then not it's interesting. You don't need to read the entirety of every chapter to get the gist of this book, because the point of it is not to compeltely educate the reader about slavery but simply to inform the reader about ways it exists still today.
After reading this book, hopefully you will feel inspired to get invovled with one of Bales' organizations, such as "Free The Slaves". Whether you can sit down and read this entire book or not is of no importance. Even simply reading the introduction and skimming the chapters is enough to englighten one to the facts, which no person can hide from.
 Good bur Redundant... November 30, 2006
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I liked this book a lot. It was a huge eye-opener to the depressions of slavery in the world today. I never realized it was so bad. The only thing I didn't like about the book was that the author tended to say the same thing over and over. He would just re-word what he had previously stated. He could have had the same impact in less pages. I would, however, recommend this book to anyone who has an interest (or not) in slavery. Everyone needs to know that this kind of stuff goes on in our world today.
A Poignant Cry in the Dark May 11, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
By cloak of night or false identity, Bales, the world's foremost expert on slavery, goes to the squalid homes of slaves around the globe. From the coal-making batterias in Brazil to the brothels of Thailand, from the brick factories of Pakistan to the bonded-labor farms of India, he looks into the eyes of the oppressed and gives voice to their cries.
Sometimes too academic and repetitive, this book is nonetheless a life-changing must-read. For, as Bales reminds readers, ignorance of slavery perpetuates the crime. Suggestions for fighting this insidious and slippery aspect of commerce are included at the end.
An Evil That Is Still With Us August 18, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Sadly, it is not true that human slavery was abolished back in the 1800s, and in fact there are still millions of slaves in the world. There are slaves working in third world brothels, mines, farms, and sweatshops. Even some domestic servants in Western nations are technically enslaved. Here Kevin Bales explains how this is a new and modernized type of slavery. The old "classic" slavery, in which masters outwardly and legally owned other people, has disappeared around the world, except for in the oddly backward nation of Mauritania. The new slavery is not based on ethnic or religious subjugation and punishment, but is the outcome of globalized economics, as certain industries inevitably gravitate toward near-zero cost labor.
Most modern slaves are victims of "debt bondage," in which businessmen or middlemen make poor and desperate people work off their debts, but through fraudulent accounting and trickery make it impossible for the debts to be paid off, therefore gaining forced and unpaid labor. This phenomenon is tragically common in many nations, and tens of millions of people are subjected to hopeless lives of economic subjugation. Bales explores this modern slavery in several nations that are trying to convince the world that it doesn't happen within their borders, or try to justify this bondage with dissembling arguments that are disgustingly similar to those used by the old Southern plantation owners in America.
Bales does a pretty good job of describing how real, quantifiable economics and globalization processes bring this human tragedy about. However, this aspect of his analysis could be strengthened, to make a more effective argument with policy makers. I suggest that Bales team up with a reputable political scientist or economist to make this structural argument stronger. Some international readers may also take issue with Bales' introductory explanations of the cultures on which he is reporting. Statements about how Thailand's culture totally condones that nation's horrific sex industry, or how Pakistan's social structure inevitably results in internecine violence, are most likely generalizations that could be fleshed out with more sensitive research. But overall those are minor flaws. Bales gives you a very disconcerting feeling about the state of modern humanity, and about how slavery has played a part in the manufacture of many of your consumer items and the bottom line of companies in which you may have invested. [~doomsdayer520~]
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