Thursday, June 5, 2008

Specialized Print Reference Books


Bales, Kevin. New Slavery: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2000.

This book is part of the Contemporary World Issues Series published by ABC-CLIO. The author is professor, researcher, and President of Free the Slaves Kevin Bales. This is a rich resource for a researcher looking for information on slavery. The book contains documents relating to slavery, statistics, databases and biographical sketches. It includes a history of slavery up to the present, and devotes several chapters to discussing specific world regions. In addition, it clarifies the different forms of slavery and provides background on the various causes of slavery. The book also provides information on a variety of other resources, including organizations, reports, briefings, and periodicals.


Rodriguez, Junius P., ed. The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 1997.

While The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery is a comprehensive work covering the history of slavery since the development of society, it contains entries that focus on modern slavery. The usefulness of this resource would be to provide a reporter with a historical context in which to understand the basis of modern slavery. It would be interesting to compare the history of slavery in a country to the current state of slavery in that area. This encyclopedia provides a history of the legislation against slavery in each world region that would be useful for such a purpose.

No comments: