Marjorie Gann and Janet Willen,
Five Thousand Years of Slavery
Tundra Books, 2011.

Rating: E*

Five Thousand Years of Slavery is a balanced masterpiece of information and motivational text. This in-dept text is rich yet reads like a story. The captioned images and conversational sidebars add to this read of humanities’ saddest moments. Being neither gory nor glorious, the reader will discover what slavery looked like from ancient times to the present as well as all documented efforts to thwart its success.

The authors are to be complimented both for their attention to detail and tone. This book handles the controversial topic of slavery with honesty and a deliberate lack of drama. It engages the aspects of religion, politics and economy on the development and perpetuation of slavery. No culture or place is spared. The book begins its historical discussion in Ancient Hebrew times, continues thru European Christian Middle Ages, Slavery in Africa and under Islam, in the Americas and Asia, ending with the Modern Era and Human Trafficking in the US, Cuba, China, and North Korea to name a few.

Given the current impetus to educate for change, this text is an invaluable resource. Designed to inform, it provides accurate and balanced information allowing the reader to both understand and identify the issue. This text would be well-suited for any project in the Social Sciences and History curriculum. A brief section entitled How can I help? promotes activism by way of links to organizations and ideas for action.

Christy den Haan-Veltman
Vol. 16, number 3
February 2011

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.