Description

Slavery is a live issue today, but the people who talk about it as such are not all of a piece. Some insist the world is now plagued by the contemporary equivalent of transatlantic slavery, and call on us to combat "modern slavery". Others hold that the on-going devaluation and destruction of black life continues the logic of transatlantic slavery. They urge us to address the "afterlives" of racial chattel slavery. These two groupings provide different answers to the questions, "what do we know and what should we do about slavery?" This book reviews what is known about the issues at the heart of each perspective, and argues that the concept of "afterlives" is more helpful than that of "modern slavery" to those seeking to challenge injustice, violence, inequality and oppression in the twenty-first century.

The 'What Do We Know and What Should We Do About...?′ series offers readers short, up-to-date overviews of key issues often misrepresented, simplified or misunderstood in modern society and the media. Each book is written by a leading social scientist with an established reputation in the relevant subject area.

"Short, sharp and compelling." - Alex Preston, The Observer

"If you want to learn a lot about what matters most, in as short a time as possible, this is the series for you." - Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of Oxford