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There are 27 million slaves alive today - more than at any other point in our history.Written by the world's leading experts, this examination combines original research with first-hand accounts from actual slaves to expose one of today's worst humanitarian crises. The first introductory guide to modern slavery in all its forms, coverage includes modern slavery's history, economy, health consequences, and gender, racial, and religious dynamics, and the pressures of armed conflict and environmental disaster. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Citizens & Governments/ 21st Century Slaves Are Cheap & Disposable Commodies
There are at least 27 million slaves alive today. More than at anytime in history, as many as in the 350 years of the Atlantic slave trade era, and as the authors point out, their numbers are greater than the population of Australia. They are paid nothing and are nationally and globally exploited. They are under VIOLENT control. They are i n v i s i b l e . As the authors put it/making something illegal doesn't make it disappear.
Forced labor for economic exploitation accounts for about 90% of slavery in Latin America and the Carribean, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, while commercial sexual exploitation accounts for the remaining 10%. In the industrialized countries sexual exploitation rules, accounting for about 75% of slavery in those civilized countries.
The authors provide a variety of charts that give the reader a quick picture of what slavery is geographically, economically, & historically. The also provide some pictures of slaves that bring the relization home, that these are people, like ourselves. For instance one shows the forms of slave labor in the U.S./Sex services(including children)49%, Domestic service 27%, Agriculture 10%, Factory work 5%, Restaurant-Hotel work 4%, Entertainment 3%, Other 2%.
The authors tell how the history of slavery is seamless; and how it has evolved today to become globalized, where forms of slavery in different parts of the world are becomming more alike; where it is now predominately in the realm of small criminal bussinessmen; where the length of time slaves are held has fallen, now often temporary, lasting just a few years or even months, because it is not profitable to keep slaves when they are not immediately useful; and is no longer dependent on racial difference. That today the cost of slaves have dropped like the proverbial lead baloon to historical lows, wher the amount of profit to be made starts in the double figures and can range easily up to 800%.
After violent control is established slavery can then take on many forms including: debt bondage slavery, contract slavery, slavery linked to religious practices, or state-sponsored forced labor.
By understanding the social, cultural, political, economic, and sometimes religious packaging that is wrapped around slavery in different countries, we can adept general patterns yo each unique setting.
There is a sinister and vicious cycle being perpetrated by some transnational corporations & international banks, where they force slaves to generate the destruction of their very own living environments, thereby destroying the very lands where their families and neighbors make their livliehoods, creating the very forces that drive their own communties toward... enslavement! The cycle of slavery and environmental destruction is very evident! Anyone who can see, could plainly view the destruction from space!
Today there are slaves waiting to be freed. Slaves have been coming to freedom for hundreds of years. The organizations that liberate slaves know how to set them free. What they cannot do is mobilize funds that help extend their work further.
In confronting slavery, we are confronting at the same time numerous associted heath risks and consequences - on an individual, national, and global scale.
Around the world slavery grows quickly amid the chaos of armed conflict, environmental destruction and natural disaster - because chaos brings with it economic crisis & violence: two of slavery's key ingrediants.
As we combat poverty to end slavery, we also need to combat slavery to help end poverty.

It is all here, AND then some. This work is only a couple of hundred pages, yet very informative. I picked this up because many of the fiction books Ive been reading have brought this issue up as part of their plots. WOW!
In closing, the authors quote Frederick Douglas many times throughout their fine work, and so.../Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither person or property will be safe.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!!!!

Covered the subject from so many angles
This book is a must read if you are interested to know what forms modern slavery takes. It is full of facts and figures, and covers all forms of modern slavery - from debt bondage in India to human traficking and forced prostitution in the world.

As well as looking at what is happening it looks at the economics of slavery (who is profiting or not) and the mechanics of it - what makes a person or community susceptible to enslavement, how do they become enslaved. It looked at rehabilitation of former slaves and strategies to end slavery.

This is not a pleasant subject area, but I think we all ought to know what is going on so we can do our best to end it. It is particularly important that law enforcement, medical personnel and those who work in service stations read this book whatever country they are in. It is these people that are most likely to see slaves and put an end to their misery.

For me, the Book of the Year
I bought this book after reading the review in the Times (London) - [...] - in the print version it was also Book of the Week. Reading the book, I was blown away. This book could not be more important. In a field where reliable statistics are hard to come by, and media coverage is dominated by sensationalist tales, it explains everything that we know at this point about slavery in our world and finally offers a serious examination of a topic that many people have heard about but don't yet understand. Bales, Trodd and Williamson offer brand new research and reliable facts, shattering the myths and sensationalism that tend to surround this topic. Their book paints the total picture, drawing together the myriad details that make up 21st-century slavery, from the lifeworlds of individual slaves to the global economic webs. The book is neither dry nor sensationalized: though it offers reliable, up-to-date information, it is enlivened with examples drawn from their anti-slavery activism and written in a jargon-free style. Even more importantly, it thoroughly illuminates one of our most pressing human rights issues and brings a message of hope and a call to action. Read this book: it will change the way you think about our world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (45)

Great Screenplay!!
I loved the film "Scream" and when I discovered that there is an actaul screenplay By Kevin Williamson that was published, I knew I had to have it.

It's amazing!!

Different Perspective

I know it's a tacky thing to do but I bought this as a gift for a slasher-flick loving friend and read it before I gave it to him. Yeah, a confession after all these years that the gift wasn't strictly 'un-used'. Anyway, I won't go into the plot of Scream, anyone reading this probably already knows it better than I do, having only seen it twice, but I will note that devoid of its visuals (beyond a few movie freeze-frames included in the book) Williamson's writing in this script comes off as better than I remember it being in Scream. Its campiness is elevated to funnier than on screen, its pop culture/film references seem more apt, and the twist the run-time builds up to is reinforced as decently unexpected. (The screenplay also spares the reader a lot of the visual violence that distracts in the case of reading for the sake of broadening insight into the spoken words of a film.) I've read scripts to a few other movies, the best being The Usual Suspects, and every time I've thought how it's a shame more people don't read the scripts to their favorite films, and how un-selfserving that more directors don't publish their screenplays.

Scream isn't a favorite of mine, and it's not high art but if you like the movie, pick this up sometime. The guy I bought it for still has it and seemed to like it.

Looking forward to CURSED
Reading SCREAM seven years after the initial impact of the film--and in movie terms seven years is definitely a whole generation later--I wonder if it would be a success if Williamson wrote the same material today.Some of it is very clever, and the references to pop culture still work, but more might have been made of the human and emotional back stories of the main characters.Neve Campbell's character, for example, doesn't have the emotional resonance years later that (to take up a similar example in a different film genre) Molly Ringwald displayed in her movies for John Hughes.

I look forward to CURSED, the new collaboration between Kevin Williamson and Wes Crave, though the rumors of the re-shoots and re-takes, actors being fired, etc., and dissatisfied test audiences, make one wonder if it won't be more like KILLING MRS TINGLE than SCREAM.Still, there's always hope.

SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!
I Like this book! Its like the movie! Its Scary!!!!!!!!! Cool! And If You are a big scream fan read it! It has pictures from scream 1 and 2 in it!

Its a scream baby!!
This book was wicked! I'm reading it for the 7th time I love it! But not as much as the film that was great "well done wes craven" Scream is the best ever i'm a extremly big fan. I know exactly every single word off by heart,I love it. I've got all three soundtracks and all three books and the films, of course! I've got the costume and everything. My favourite character is Billy Loomis he's gorgeous I would love to meet him or any one of the characters on day definatley! ... ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Walter Scott, John Claudius Loudon, Kevin Williamson, John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe, Archibald Constable, Alexander Balloch Grosart, Francis Buchanan White, Gavin Grant, James Ballantyne. Excerpt: Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 21 September 1832) was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet, popular throughout Europe during his time. Scott is particularly associated with Toryism Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers in Europe, Australia, and North America. His novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of The Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor. Scott's childhood at Sandyknowe farm, seen across the lochan from Smailholm Tower, introduced him to the Borders.Born in College Wynd in the Old Town of Edinburgh in 1771, the son of a solicitor, Scott survived a childhood bout of polio in 1773 that left him lame. To cure his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Borders region at his grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, adjacent to the ruin of Smailholm Tower, the earlier family home. Here he was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterized much of his work. In January 1775 he returned to Edinburgh, and that summer went with his aunt Jenny to take spa treatment at Bath in England, where they lived at 6 South Parade. In the winter of 1776 he went back to Sandyknowe, with another attempt at a water cure at Prestonpans during the following summer. In 1778 Scott returned to Edinb... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=27884 ... Read more

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Chapters: Charles Davidson Dunbar, John Finlaison, Henry Horne, 1st Baron Horne, Robert Brown, Kevin Williamson, Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair, Tom Dobson, Alexander Keith, Patrick Sinclair, Robert Mackay, William Campbell, Campbell Stephen, David MacKay, Jack McIntosh, Elizabeth Yates, Alexander Keith, Jr., Gary Farquhar, Evan Oliphant, James Sinclair Smith, George Bain, Craig Gunn,. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 73. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Charles Davidson Dunbar, DCM, (17 July, 1870 - 25 January, 1939) was an orphan who grew up to become the first pipe major in Britain and the Empire to be commissioned as a pipe officer. He emigrated from Scotland to Canada, where he came to be called "Canada's greatest military piper". According to the official record of his birth, he was born 17 July, 1870, to an unmarried needlewoman: Alexandrina Leith Miller, who lived at 107 Bridge Street in the Caithness village of Halkirk, in northern Scotland. Though Alexandrina Miller was poor, she was sufficiently educated to teach Charles to read, and she made sure he attended the Parish School. In later records, he used the name Charles Dunbar and, subsequently, Charles Davidson Dunbar, perhaps to honor his half-brother, Alexander Davidson. He gave his father's name as William Dunbar on both his entrance records to industrial school and his marriage license. Only one William Dunbar appears to have lived in Halkirk at the time of Charles' birth, the lessee of Braal "Brawl" Castle. But there are no documents that directly link this William Dunbar with Alexandrina Miller or her son Charles. No baptismal record has been found and William Dunbar's will does not mention Charles or his mother. When Alexandrina Miller died on 8 September 1876, in Halkirk, she was identified as a single woman aged 48. Her p...http://booksllc.net/?id=7432231 ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: David Byrne, Ken Macleod, Janey Godley, Robert Black, Momus, Tom Harris, Kevin Williamson, Net News Daily, Tom Morton, Emma Maree Urquhart, Osama Saeed, Richard Thomson, Alex Massie. Excerpt:Alex Massie (born 1974) is a Scottish journalist . A former Washington correspondent for The Scotsman , he has also written for The Daily Telegraph , The New Republic , The Daily Beast , The Los Angeles Times , Foreign Policy , National Review Online , The Sunday Telegraph , Scotland on Sunday , The American Conservative , and The Sunday Business Post . He currently writes and blogs for The Spectator . Education He was educated at Glenalmond College in Perthshire and at Trinity College, Dublin , where he won the John Smith Memorial Mace debating competition in 1997. Private life Alex Massie supports scottish football side Heart of Midlothian . See also (online edition) References (URLs online) A hyperlinked version of this chapter is at David Byrne David Byrne (born May 14, 1952) is a Scottish -born musician and artist best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads , which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo projects on record, and worked in a variety of media, including film , photography , opera , and Internet -based projects. He has received Grammy , Oscar , and Golden Globe awards for his achievements. As a member of Talking Heads, Byrne is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . Although a resident of the United States since childhood, Byrne is a British citizen . Early years Byrne was born in Dumbarton , Scotland to Tom and Emma Byrne, the older of two children. Two years later, his parents moved to Hamilton, Ontario , Canada , and then to Arbutus, Maryland , when he was 8 or 9 years ... ... Read more

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Chapters: Kevin Williamson, Ron Brown, John Mcallion, Alan Mccombes, Hugh Kerr, Lloyd Quinan, Jim Bollan, Katrine Trolle, Catriona Grant. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 33. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Kevin Williamson (born 1961) is a writer, publisher, and activist originally from Caithness. He is a Scottish socialist and republican and was an activist for the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), and was the architect of their radical drug policy, which includes the legalisation of cannabis and the provision by the state of free heroin to addicts. He wrote a regular weekly column, "Rebel Ink", for the Scottish Socialist Voice. In 1992 Williamson launched a literary magazine called Rebel Inc and through its pages was one of the first publishers of such Scottish writers as Irvine Welsh, Laura Hird, Alan Warner, and Toni Davidson. He has also championed such major Scottish writers as James Kelman, Duncan McLean, Gordon Legge and Alasdair Gray. In 1996 Williamson joined forces with Edinburgh-based Canongate Books to create the Rebel Inc imprint which, in the following five years, published almost sixty titles, mixing Scottish fiction with the international counter-culture and the politics of dissent. Within the Rebel Inc imprint Williamson re-published a series of out of print titles under the heading of Rebel Inc Classics that included writers such as Richard Brautigan, Alexander Trocchi, Charles Bukowski, Nelson Algren, John Fante, Knut Hamsun, Jim Dodge, Robert Sabbag and Jack London. He is a long-time campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis, and unsuccessfully tried to open a "hash cafe" in Edinburgh. In 1997 Williamson went on a "National Change The Drug Laws" tour with former cannabis smuggler Howard Marks. In 1999 Williamson stood as an SSP candidate in the first ever el...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=3874017 ... Read more

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This digital document, covering the life and work of Kevin Williamson, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2143 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

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Chapters: Tim Alexander, Linda Mcmahon, Lewis Addison Armistead, Francis L. Hawks, Kevin Williamson, Dan Neil, Nicholas Sparks, Walt Bellamy, Dennis Mitchell, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Ashlyn Gere, George Edmund Badger, Edward Stanly, Brian Simmons, John S. Battle, Lee Purcell, Teddy Shapou, Marshall Moore, Cicero Stephens Hawks, John Stanly, Davon Drew, John Heritage Bryan, Jeremy Mcdaniel, Bob Mann, Aaron Martin, Shawn Morgan. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 120. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Linda Marie Edwards-McMahon (born October 4, 1948) is an American businesswoman and a Republican candidate in the 2010 Connecticut Senate race. She is married to Vince McMahon, with whom she operated World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from its establishment in 1980 through 2009. Linda McMahon was also active in the wrestling ring from 1999-2001. In September 2009, Linda McMahon stepped down from her position as CEO after a 30-year career in the wrestling industry. She is currently running for U.S. Senator for Connecticut as a Republican. Her campaign made headlines when she revealed she was willing to spend $50 million of her own money on the race. She is campaigning on promises of fiscal conservatism, lower taxes, and job creation. Linda Marie Edwards was born to Henry and Evelyn Edwards in New Bern, a city in Eastern North Carolina. She was an only child, and grew up as a "jock", with interests in basketball and baseball. Her parents were both employees at the nearby Cherry Point Air Station, a military base. Linda was raised in a traditional, conservative family, and attended Catholic mass regularly. During one mass Linda, at the age of 13, happened to meet Vince McMahon, then 16. Coincidentally, her mother worked in the same building as Vince McMahon's mother, the Cherry Point military...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=679668 ... Read more

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The Scream film series is a series of horror films directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson and Ehren Kruger. The main plot involves a psychopathic serial killer wearing a Halloween costume attempting to kill Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and various other characters involved in her life. Each film begins with the gory murder of a couple before showing the wherabouts of Sidney. It takes off from there leading to the revelation of the killer's identity and the final battle between Sidney and the killer. They revitalized the slasher film genre in the mid 1990s, in a similar way to Halloween (1978) in the 1970s, by using a standard concept with a tongue-in-cheek approach that successfully combined straightforward scares with dialogue that satirized slasher film conventions. The first film became a major commercial success upon its release, and was one of the highest grossing films of 1996. It was also highly acclaimed by many critics worldwide, who appreciated the film's tongue-in-cheek approach. It received an 83% rating at rottentomatoes.com. The combined average of the three films' ratings is a 'fresh' 67%. ... Read more

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Globalization is not a new phenomenon, nor is it irreversible. In Gobalization and History, Kevin O'Rourke and Jeffrey Williamson present a coherent picture of trade, migration, and international capital flows in the Atlantic economy in the century prior to 1914--the first great globalization boom, which anticipated the experience of the last fifty years. The authors estimate the extent of globalization and its impact on the participating countries, and discuss the political reactions that it provoked. The book's originality lies in its application of the tools of open-economy economics to this critical historical period--differentiating it from most previous work, which has been based on closed-economy or single-sector models. The authors also keep a close eye on globalization debates of the 1990s, using history to inform the present and vice versa. The book brings together research conducted by the authors over the past decade--work that has profoundly influenced how economic history is now written and that has found audiences in economics and history, as well as in the popular press. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Interesting, but...
It's been awhile since I read this, so unfortunately my thoughts aren't fresh and I can't remember specifics. Nevertheless, heregoes: as an academic economist, I liked the book, found it interesting, and liked being walked through lots of interesting facts and data, on stuff like convergence of prices after increases in shipping technology, and on immigration to the new world. Yet, I also felt that the book had no really coherent theme, as material for the book was seemingly chosen out of the authors' published academic papers. As such, it seems like they completely punted on all the important questions about trade, tariffs, and industrial policy. Hajoon Chang writes books with the provocative thesis that no country has ever gotten rich on free trade, and that the protectionism allows countries not at the technological frontier to get there quicker, and, he says, mainstream economists don't believe in this for purely ideological reasons. What are Williamson & O'Rourke's view? As mainstream economists, they almost certainly do not agree with Hajoon Chang. Yet, they give no intellectual counterweight. They say little to nothing about it in the book, which can only lead one to the conclusion that they had not thought seriously about the most important topic falling within the rubric of "Globalization and History". That's a damning critique. (Although, it should be mentioned that O'Rourke has a more recent paper which concludes that countries with industrial tariffs grew faster (from 1870-1913), which is actually supportive of the Chang view...)

Good Data, Wrong Bias
I would agree that this is a very good book in terms of presenting what happened in the 19th century Atlantic economy. I do have one critical observation. The authors blame the collapse of globalization on the lobbying of particular industries; thus setting up the argument thatgeneral gains from trade were lost to special interests. This is in accordwith their belief that globalization is a good thing. As an economistworking on these issues for many years, with experience in government aswell as academics and the private sector, I have to disagree. Clearly,governments need to rally constituents to support policies. Yet, from ourown Alexander Hamilton to Germany's Otto von Bismarck, and a host ofothers, states had a strategic vision of what was in the national interestfor which they sought support. This is the origin of the "iron andwheat" alliances that O'Rourke and Williamson credit with undoing"free trade" on the continent. This was a strategy of nationaleconomic development and strategic independence under which the majorpowers were able to successfully increase their economic growth rates. Forevidence of this I would recommend Paul Bairoch's book Economics and WorldHistory (Univ. of Chicago, 1993). As the great economic thinker JosephSchumpeter observed "the consistent support given by the Americanpeople to protectionist policies...is accounted for not by any love for ordomination by big business, but by a fervant wish to build and keep a worldof their own and to be rid of all the vicissitudes of the rest of theworld." This is true of most people, most places---which is why thecurrent fad of globalization will not last either.

Economic History Made Delightful
This book is not an easy read.Especially if you are not interested in economics and lack basic economics terminologies, you'll certainly have difficulties appreciating this book the way it should be.It is, however,an tremendously insightful story of the evolution and devolution ofglobalizm in the world in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It, in rigorous details, shows how an earlier period of globalization inthe late 19th century was self-destructed by the very same forces thatestablished it as a significant force in the global economic system.Itreflects how easy it is to lose the benefits of economic globalism which wetoday often take for granted.

Interesting history 19th cent. Atlantic globalization
I am an economist working on globalization issues, interested in history and economic history. I found this book an excellent study that puts globalization discussion in historical (19th century) context, a period oflarge international capital flows and even larger human capital flows. Thstudy uses data on these mass movements in production factors toempirically test/uses the standard international trade Heckscher Olin modelon income and factor price distribution in trade. It shows that these massmovements had indeed measurable effects on income distribution followingsome of the model predictions.Problems of globalization in economic termsare indeed linked to the income effects of several groups in the economyfollowing the opening up to increasing trade, investment and migrationflows.All too often these discussions are marred by lack of data and lackof historical awareness, and i found this study filling a real gap. Itsurely will be contested but i found the analysis interesting andwell-written. Recommended! ... Read more