Trinity Niemyer

The book Slavery Today is a modern look at human trafficking in the twenty-first century. Kevin Bales explores the lives of the estimated 27 million men, women, and children who are bought and sold as slaves in the world. Slavery isn’t defined as it was in the nineteenth century, however. Bales says, “Many people think slavery is about owning people, but the key to slavery is not about ownership but about how people are controlled.” Trafficking isn’t about force, it’s a psychological control a person has over a subject. The book is written very much like a guide. The structure is modeled after the ‘Dummies’ series, with blocks of text as asides, and points set aside from the main block of text. The book only has 117 pages, but it gets its punches in, and goes straight to the point, without dawdling on formalities. The chapters are titled things like ‘Types of Slavery’, and ‘How We Will End Slavery’. Readers are able to find their specific subject easily and without trouble. The whole book is written as if to lead a reader through the subject, rather than push them through headfirst. Slavery Today was written by Kevin Bales in 2008, along with Becky Cornell. The purpose of the book is to educate the millions of people who have no idea that slavery is going on right under their noses in this world where it’s now illegal. Bales says: “In the United States, the “land of the free”, an estimated 17,000 men, women, and children are forced into slavery each year.” The author wants to establish the fact that we were not living in a working society, and that we are watching this happen out of our peripheral vision, with our heads turned the other way. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away. Slavery Today also contains a timeline of slavery, which most people believe ended in the nineteenth century. The book is useful because it will help educate people about this problem and help them better understand how to fix it. However, the book is limited in that it is focusing on the worldwide problem rather than narrowing it down to one country at a time. If people understood how the problem (and therefore the solution) applies to their specific life, they would be much more likely to try and fix it. The entire book is based on a directory style, which gives the author a lot of authority. The factual stance it has takes doubts out of the reader’s mind. The author rarely uses ‘we’ and never uses ‘I’. This continues to give the idea that the author knows what is being talked about. The author is using Ethos as an argumentative tactic, which is an appeal to authority. This is a very factual, statistic-heavy book.