Foundations of Modern Slavery

This is an academic inquiry into how labor power has been dehumanized and commodified around the world through the ages for capital accumulation and industrialization, and colonial and post-colonial economic transformation. The study explores all major episodes of slaveries beginning from the ancient civilizations to the end of Transatlantic Slave Trade in the eighteenth century; the worlds of serfdoms in the context of Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Russia; the worlds of feudalisms in the context of Latin America, Japan, China, and India; the worlds of indentured servitudes in the context of the Europeans, the Indians, and the Chinese; the worlds of guestworkers in the contexts of the United States and Western Europe; the worlds of migrant labor programs in the context of the Gulf States; and the contemporary world of neoslavery focusing on human trafficking in both developing and developed countries, and forced labor in global value chains.

The book is designed not only for students and academia in labor economics, labor history, and global socio-economic and political transformations, but also for the intelligent and inquiring policy makers, reformers, and general readers across the disciplinary pursuits of Economics, Political Science, History, Sociology, Anthropology, and Law.

Author Biography

Caf Dowlah, a former professor of economics with the State University of New York and the City University of New York for three decades, has most recently been an International Consultant for the Modern Slavery Project of the United Nations. He has also taught at the University of Southern California (his alma mater), the California State University-Fullerton, and the Otaru University of Commerce (Japan). Dr. Dowlah has also worked for the World Bank, the UNDP, the UN-WFP, and the USAID in policy advisory capacities. He has authored over a dozen books and over three dozen papers in refereed journals on international trade, global finance and investment, global value chains, and international labor migration. His latest book—Cross-Border Labor Mobility: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives—was published by Macmillan in 2020. He is also a contributory author to Developing Freedom: The Sustainable Development Case for Ending Modern Slavery, being published by the United Nations.