Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews | 2021
Migrant Crossings: Witnessing Human Trafficking in the U.S.
Abstract
centuries before colonial arrival and the subsequent cultural and corporeal genocide of Native Nations and peoples. The book also describes communities built using slave labor without offering the necessary critique of these communities; there is no way to identify a community built by enslaved people as representing anything meaningful for understanding socialism, equality, or freedom. Although the author does note that certain communities either included or excluded members of certain racial or ethnic groups or allowed or prohibited women in leadership, the text does so uncritically, without connecting these claims to the larger argument about experiments in cooperative living as central to understanding the history and culture of the United States. American Community is certainly correct in claiming that ‘‘human survival may depend on our ability to find better ways of living with each other and on becoming better stewards of the earth’’ (p. 183). The communities described in the book do provide historical lessons and insights regarding the potential and the challenges for living cooperatively, and the author does end the book by connecting this history to its contemporary contexts and significance. There is no doubt that ideas about living more cooperatively and grounding society in sharing systems rather than individual competition have been part of the culture of the United States since its colonial settler beginnings and that these ideas have deep relevance and potential significance for transforming U.S. culture and economy today. We can hope the book’s readers can enjoy the historical telling of this book and can see the significance of the primary argument about the potential for radical reinvention and cooperative living, while also recognizing the book’s limitations in developing a deep and critical reflection of how these experiments are challenged by the continued existence of the dominant culture and by the problematic history of the United States, which must be reckoned with directly if we are to ever develop a truly equal and free society in which everyone truly benefits from their participation in collective endeavors through cooperative community. Reference