Slavery in the Modern World―A History of Political, Social, and Economic Oppression

This two-volume reference on modern slavery contains five essays describing forms and causes of slavery and coerced labor around the world and its connection to such issues as migration, organized crime, and economic activity; followed by 450 encyclopedia entries offering details on individuals and organizations involved with slavery and efforts at abolition, relevant legislation and treaties, key historical events, and conceptual issues; and 230 pages of documents associated with the history of slavery, chronologically arranged from the US Tort Claims Act of 1789 to Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 proclamation on human trafficking. The following sample list of entry subjects may provide a sense of the scope of the encyclopedia section: Aborigines' Protection Society, Alexander II (the tsar who abolished serfdom), Lavrenty Beria (who oversaw the forced labor camps of the Soviet Union's NKVD), cane harvesters, chattel slavery, child labor, concubines, debt slavery, economic globalization, anti-colonial intellectual Frantz Fanon, American abolitions William Lloyd Garrison, human trafficking, illegal migration, Jim Crow laws, the Koran and antislavery, Nazi slavery, nongovernmental organizations, prison labor, Sex Workers Union of Cambodia, social reintegration of former slaves, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and World Trade Organization. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Junius P. Rodriguez, PhD, is associate professor of history at Eureka College, Eureka, IL.