"Slavery is illegal throughout the world, yet more than twenty-seven million people are still trapped in one of history's oldest social institutions. Kevin Bale's disturbing story of slavery today reaches from brick kilns in Pakistan and brothels in Thailand to the offices of multinational corporations and beyond. The current slaves are not a long-term investment as was true with older forms of slavery, explains Bales. Instead they are cheap, require little care, and are disposable. This edition is updated with a stunning new preface that traces the changes in global slavery and abolition since the book was first published over ten years ago."--Back cover.