Siddharth Kara Books in Order

Drawing on research across South Asia, Kara examines how debt bondage traps workers in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and other industries. He connects personal accounts with the history and economics of forced labor, tracing its links to global consumption.

Kara investigates cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through the lives of workers and nearby communities. His account traces hazardous labor and exploitation through the supply chains connecting mines to rechargeable batteries, consumer electronics, and electric vehicles.

Kara reconstructs the voyage of the slave ship Zorg and the killing of more than a hundred enslaved Africans. The owners' insurance claim sparked a legal struggle that exposed the slave trade's brutality and helped galvanize the abolitionist movement.

Kara investigates the economics of sex trafficking through encounters with survivors, traffickers, and those fighting exploitation. Following the business across countries, he examines the forces sustaining modern slavery and considers how its financial incentives might be disrupted.