Factory Man

This would have been a much better book with some balance, because the story of the Bassett family is actually very interesting. But the author's premise seems to be that globalization is evil, and so there is no time spent on what the alternative to globalization is. Furthermore, although there is some mention that what the southern furniture makers did to the northern US manufacturers is exactly the same as what the Asian manufacturers have no done, this point seems to get lost. And that's partly, I think a question of race. Somehow globalization is worse because it is ASIANs who are engaged in the lower-cost manufacturing.

The author also seems to use “Chinese Communist” as an epithet, as if the paternalism of the Bassett factory town was anything different.

What saved Vaughan-Bassett was its ability to innovate in the face of competition. That's a story worth telling, but the author relegates to what is essentially a footnote.