If you believe buying T-shirts labeled “Made in the U.S.A.” means they’re not sweatshop-made, read this thoroughly researched, compulsively readable book. John Bowe spent three years in a U.S. territory called Saipan, a Pacific island where laborers are shipped in, paid $3.05 an hour, confined to their barracks, and sometimes physically and sexually abused. He also uncovers similar cases in Florida and Oklahoma. Despite the title, it’s not sensationalist—American companies seem to be getting away with murder.
Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
By John Bowe; Random House; $25.95.