Over the last decade, ugly allegations of corporate complicity in human-rights violations have exploded into one of the most controversial issues of our time.

Companies are being held responsible by human-rights advocates for the injustices that are the unintended side effects of economic globalization: union repression in China, forced labor in Burma, child workers in Pakistan, and sweatshop abuse throughout the developing world.

Using the story of Levi Strauss and Company as a guide, Karl Schoenberger offers a highly readable assessment of the challenge that the human-rights scourge poses to international business.

Schoenberger is sensitive to the interests of activists, politicians, and multinationals, and as a result his call for active corporate engagement and rigorous accountability in promoting the rights of overseas workers carries enormous resonance.

Simultaneously impassioned and evenhanded, Levi's Children is a work of profound importance, one that may help us chart our course in the next century.

"Thorough, well-informed and chatty .

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Schoenberger's conclusion is intriguing.