The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Ron Soodalter (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although most people imagine widespread enslavement only in the historical past, human trafficking continues to exist today in myriad forms around the world. In this informative call to action, Bales (Disposable People), sociologist and president of Free the Slaves, and Soodalter (Hanging Captain Gordon), a historian, document routine coercive slave labor in domestic service, prostitution, farm labor, factories, light industry, prisons and mining operations. While many sensational cases have been well publicized, the authors demonstrate that slavery exists in mundane and unexpected forms. Their case studies begin in an American suburb and traverse the globe to urban China and rural Ghana, returning to Los Angeles, Calif., and East Orange, N.J., just a few of 100-plus documented cases in the U.S. The second half of the book focuses on causes and solutions, with a helpful emphasis on how ordinary individuals can recognize and report coercive situations, creating a humane and helpful primer on how to sever the links that create and hide human bondage. (July)
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Review

"An informative call to action . . . a humane and helpful primer on how to sever the links that create and hide human bondage."--Publishers Weekly

"Essential reading for anyone interested in human rights. . . . [The authors] appeal to the reader's sense of justice and compassion."--Foreign Policy In Focus

"If you read one book on human trafficking this year, make it The Slave Next Door. . . . Digestible, enjoyable, and ultimately uplifting."--Change.org

"With the help of this great book . . . we can shift from ignoring this crude reality to [eradicating] this abominable practice."--African Politics Portal

"An arresting volume."--History Wire

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (June 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520255151
• ISBN-13: 978-0520255159
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,019 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive Work on Slavery in America Today, July 12, 2009

By	Marsha Veit (Mount Kisco, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

With "The Slave Next Door" Bales and Soodalter have written the definitive work for this recently "hot" social issue.
Meticulously researched (over 30 pages of appendices and notes) and compelling, it documents not only the problem but a well thought out plan of action for government, law enforcement and NGOs. The authors also spell out ways for ordinary citizens to do right by their fellow human beings.
This book should be required reading for every legislator, law enforcement officer and religious leader in the country.

5.0 out of 5 stars What a world, October 28, 2009

By	J. L LaRegina "Jim LaRegina" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I picked up THE SLAVE NEXT DOOR: HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SLAVERY IN AMERICA TODAY by Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter after seeing Mr. Bales interviewed on the radio/television news program DEMOCRACY NOW!. While I knew slavery was as widespread as ever in the United States and other countries, this detail-laden book takes that down the abstraction ladder to the kitchen floor where your neighbors make their live-in "maid" sleep. With each page you turn, THE SLAVE NEXT DOOR spins your head with account after account of people either fooled or taken by force into farming, construction, domestic, or sex work without pay - and with violence should they try to escape.

To my surprise, I am only the third person to review THE SLAVE NEXT DOOR on this web site. I don't know if that means the book is not selling as well as it should or if people just don't want to talk about slavery, even if they read it. As I write this in October 2009, DEMOCRACY NOW! is the only broadcasting program I follow to run a story on THE SLAVE NEXT DOOR. I promoted the book to a local newspaper reporter who was covering the trial of a human trafficking operator and hope others talk it up to journalists, too. While there is no shortage of injustice in the world, whatever things could quantify as worse than slavery, there can't be many.

Read and promote THE SLAVE NEXT DOOR.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars why add this to your must read list, October 10, 2009

By	Edy Lou Benjamin "penchant" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

last evening
an open cart load of children
were being hauled home at sundown
after working from sun up till now
on trinkets for American consumers
so tired they couldn't wake up for their one meal
of the day
while i was only waking from a night mare
about their day mare
one can not read "The Slave Next Door"
without gaining a conscious re
excessive consumerism
and all that would befog our guilt
of resources stolen
lands destroyed
peoples uprooted from their land

do something?
first buy the book
then do something
our Mother's heart is broken.