Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves [Paperback]

Kevin Bales (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520257960 | ISBN-13: 978-0520257962 | Publication Date: December 10, 2008 | Edition: 1

In his 1999 book, Disposable People, Kevin Bales brought to light the shocking fact of modern slavery and described how, nearly two hundred years after the slave trade was abolished (legal slavery would have to wait another fifty years), global slavery stubbornly persists. In Ending Slavery, Bales again grapples with the struggle to end this ancient evil and presents the ideas and insights that can finally lead to slavery's extinction. Recalling his own involvement in the antislavery movement, he recounts a personal journey in search of the solution and explains how governments and citizens can build a world without slavery.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Bales (Understanding Global Slavery) provides a guide for eliminating the plague of slavery that continues to this day, involving some 27 million slaves worldwide producing $13 billion in goods and services. Bales provides a thorough overview of slavery, including its history, its methods, the lives of its victims around the world and the conditions under which it flourishes (modern slaves "are cheap, and they are disposable"); most importantly, Bales has put together guides to action at every level, from the individual to the community to the United Nations, in a six-point plan that includes protecting, arming and cloning "the liberators," enacting and enforcing effective antislavery legislation and, perhaps most important (and overlooked), helping freed slaves heal ("liberation is just the first step on a long road"). Alongside those goals, Bales also considers practical matters, including fundraising, increasing awareness among the general public and convincing governments to pay attention: though "all political leaders denounce slavery," its numbers are still up, "perpetrators go uncaught... and the minimal resources needed to rehabilitate freed slaves are not available." Shocking, saddening, angering and inspiring, this volume reveals in full a side of the global market many Americans simply do not know about, clueing readers in on "the extent of their own involvement in global slavery," and the unthinkable injustices that could be taking place even in their local communities.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

"None of us is truly free while others remain enslaved. The continuing existence of slavery is one of the greatest tragedies facing our global humanity. Today we finally have the means and increasingly the conviction to end this scourge and to bring millions of slaves to freedom. Read Kevin Bales's practical and inspiring book, and you will discover how our world can be free at last."--Desmond Tutu

"Ever since the Emancipation Proclamation, Americans have congratulated themselves on ending slavery once and for all. But did we? Kevin Bales is a powerful and effective voice in pointing out the appalling degree to which servitude, forced labor and outright slavery still exist in today's world, even here. This book is a valuable primer on the persistence of these evils, their intricate links to poverty, corruption and globalization--and what we can do to combat them. He's a modern-day William Lloyd Garrison."--Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves

"I know modern slavery from the inside, and since coming to freedom I am committed to end it forever. This book shows us how to make a world where no more childhoods will be stolen and sold as mine was."--Given Kachepa, former U.S. slave, recipient of the Yoshiyama Award

"Kevin Bales does not just pontificate from behind a desk. From the charcoal pits of Brazil to the brothels of Thailand, he has seen the victims of modern day slavery. In Ending Slavery, Bales gives us an update on what's happening (and not happening), and a controversial plan to abolish slavery in the 21st century. This is a must read for anyone who wants to learn about the great human rights issue of our times."--Ambassador John Miller, former director of the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (December 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520257960
• ISBN-13: 978-0520257962
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Going undercover to meet slaves and slaveholders, Kevin Bales exposed how modern slavery penetrates the global economy and flows into the things we buy. Named by Utne Reader as a "visionary who is changing your world;" and the originator of one of "100 World-Changing Discoveries" by the Association of British Universities, he is a leading abolitionist in the last great anti-slavery movement. In 2001 he co-founded Free the Slaves, the American sister-organization of the UK's Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest human rights group. In eight years it has helped to liberate thousands of slaves in India, Nepal, Haiti, Ghana, Brazil, Ivory Coast, and Bangladesh, and work with them to build new lives of dignity. After reading Bales' book Ending Slavery, President Clinton told the plenary of the Clinton Global Initiative: "It tells you that it is a problem we can solve and here's how to do it." This year, with Ron Soodalter, he published The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today, an expose and plan to make America slave-free for the first time in its history.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A call for action, January 31, 2008

By 

Kyra_Athena "Kyra_Athena" (Georgia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

This book is a poignant call for action. Most Americans have no idea where the products they purchase come from or at least who is making the products. Kevin Bales delivers a current status on enslavement. Slavery may have officially stopped in the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation. In search of cheap labor, companies went abroad. Some of the personal stories were so sad that I really cried, out of sadness for the people for their painful and ruined lives and wondering how much I as an American consumer had contributed to their misery. Bales offers a solution which begins with Americans recognizing the problem and the lobbying for change. Americans can impact this problem directly by not buying slave-produced products and campaigning against it through Congress. This is not a light read.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ending Slavery, January 29, 2008

By 

Stephen Balbach (Ashton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Kevin Bales is a recognized world authority on the generally hidden phenomenon of modern slavery; he best known for Disposable People (1999), a standard and influential text in classrooms and with policy makers. Ending Slavery (2007) is his latest book which reveals updated information and additional heartbreaking stories, balanced by optimistic practical solutions for the audacious goal of ending slavery around the world. Either one of these books would be an excellent place to start learning about modern slavery for the average reader. While slavery can be a depressing subject, Ending Slavery is ultimately uplifting because of its success stories, of solutions working, of the world becoming a better place and ways to keep the momentum going. By the end of the book there is a practical plan of what to do next for everyone from the concerned citizen, community leader, governments and NGO.

Modern slavery is largely hidden from view because, unlike in the 19th century and earlier, slavery today is illegal everywhere and- like drugs- the problem has gone underground. There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today - by comparison in the entire 350 year history of the African slave trade, about 13 million slaves were brought to the New World. When talking about modern slavery this comparison to the African slave trade is often made, and for good reason, our culture is saturated with the history of slavery from the movie "Roots", the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Civil War history. If this cultural outrage of history were channeled to help modern slaves alive and toiling away today, imagine the good, but it starts with awareness. Most people don't know the basics of modern slavery: What is a modern slave? Where are they? What do they do? What can we do about it? This book answers those questions.

As the cover-picture of the book suggests, a happy discovery awaits within. After slavery comes freedom. New found freedom is one of the most rewarding experiences imaginable, both for slaves and those who help free them. It is no accident Lincoln, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and others are among the most revered and popular leaders; or that the first and oldest human rights organization in the world is an anti-slave group (which still exists in England, connected to Kevin Bales). The struggle for freedom is far from over, and its happening everywhere from the suburbs of Washington DC to the cocoa (chocolate) plantations of Africa. Take the time to learn how slavery impacts us all, and what to do about it.

There are a number of free films online that tie into the book. In particular _Slavery: A Global Investigation _and _Dreams Die Hard_ detail some of the same people and stories in the book, including interviews with Bales.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Helpful, Smart, Practical Approach, October 28, 2007

By 

J. Bowe (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves (Hardcover)

As an author who has also written about slavery, I can say that Bales' many years' experience with the subject are apparent on every page. Avoiding sensationalism or unhelpful despair, Ending Slavery is an expert and pragmatic guide for all of us, rich and poor, interested in advancing the cause of human rights and general happiness.

We do not address problems of global poverty and slavery with our sympathy or pity. Bales' ability to articulate concrete, positive steps is invaluable.

This book goes far beyond its issue. By addressing the tangible, achieveable mechanisms by which we address the roots and causes of slavery, Bales also manages to shine a light toward ways we can help smooth the iniquities and anti-democratic tendencies resulting from the current mania for "globalization."

Ending Slavery is not luxury reading, a do-gooder tome for those of us with the leisure to care about poor foreigners in unimaginable situations. It's a technical manual for how we in the First World can save ourselves. As Bales has previously written (I hope I get this quote right), "slave labor anywhere threatens free labor everywhere." Slavery in a globalized world is not only wrong, but dangerous.