Our Lives, Our History: Consensual Master/slave relationships from ancient times to the 21st century

Nothing could be a greater expression of personal freedom than the decision to renounce your freedom and become a slave, subject to the will of another person. Similarly, nothing could be a greater expression of personal responsibility than the decision to become a Master, wholly answerable for another adult’s life and well-being. More and more today, such decisions determine everyday reality for members of the consensual Master/slave community. While coercive slavery is an evil that must be rejected absolutely, the right of self-determination demands acceptance of voluntary slavery as a legitimate way of life rooted in both history and human nature. Edited by Peter Tupper and sponsored by the MTTA organization (see www.mtta.info), the groundbreaking Perfectbound Press anthology OUR LIVES, OUR HISTORY explores consensual Master/slave relationships from the earliest hints in ancient times through the creation of contemporary institutions that celebrate and support these partnerships. More than a dozen contributors, ranging from Laura Antoniou to Andrea Zanin, have written incisive essays on different facets of this history. As editor Tupper notes in his Introduction, while the result is not “the last word” on the subject, we trust it will be the first one. And in his Foreword, author and activist Raven Kaldera says, "After thousands -- perhaps tens of thousands -- of years of human beings doing power-over in personal relationships astoundingly badly, here we are at least trying to do it well." OUR LIVES, OUR HISTORY won the 2017 Geoff Mains Non-fiction Book Award from the National Leather Association-International.