Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - and Helped Save an American Town

A crisply written look at John D. Bassett III's efforts to maintain US furniture making in the US in the face of economic factors and foreign competition. To tell the story, Macy wants us to understand the history of the rise of furniture making in Southern Virginia and North Carolina, particularly through the story of the Bassett family. Part of this is a history of furniture making in Southern Virginia, and part of this is a history of the Bassett family with its outsized footprint in US furniture making. In the process, Macy looks at how economic factors as well as social factors shaped the furniture industry.The book culminates in John D. Bassett III's battle against Chinese imports and his battles within the US furniture industry and his own family to preserve US furniture manufacturing jobs.A brisk read with some good insights into the furniture industry's history, the history of Southern Virginia, and the economic battle to preserve US factory capacity.

When I first read about and heard about this book, I was sure I wanted to read it. I live in Southside Virginia. Before I moved here, DuPont and Tultex had closed. Since I’ve lived here, I’ve seen the closings of all the major companies that made this area the manufacturing powerhouse it was. Now that’ve read the book, I would highly recommend it as an explanation for how American jobs were handed over to foreign interests. We rolled over and played dead.The really good parts: Beth Macy did an excellent job of going step-by-step through what happened to the furniture industry that built this area, both in its heyday and in its capitulation to Asian manufacturing. Finally, someone talked about the out-sourcing of American jobs remembering the people who were hurt by them. These are people who will never have a job that good again before they retire. They were trained for factory work that doesn’t exist anymore. If they want a job that pays almost as well as the one they lost, they have to leave the area. Thousands already have. If other Americans think it isn’t coming to their towns, they’re wrong.Ms. Macy rightfully takes to task the economists in their ivory towers. They talk about the consumer getting a better deal by having cheaper products available to them. This kind of short-sighted thinking does not consider a major factor in this equation—consumers have to have jobs in order to consume. No job, no buying the cheap products that put them out of work. No buying, slow economy that takes a long time to recover. This ought to sound familiar to anyone listening to economic news these days.Even more telling was the comment made by the Asian who marveled that American capitalists would do anything for a buck, including give away their manufacturing knowledge and jobs. He said once they had these things, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to give them up.I appreciated her declaring at the beginning of the book her own biases—she was the daughter of factory workers in Ohio and had seen her own parents put out of work when the jobs were taken somewhere else. She acknowledged that she liked some of the main characters in the book more than others, including her admiration for John D. Bassett, III, the book’s main character. She pointedly remembered the folks others wouldn’t have remembered—the factory workers, especially the black ones, and the domestic workers of the factory owners.My one and only complaint was at the beginning of the book, when she talks about the history of the extended Bassett family, she put in every piece of gossip she was told. Macy wrote that the curator of the Bassett Heritage Center told her to. However, I thought she should have exercised a little more judgment. Some pieces of extended family history were just hurtful to no particular end. Some details were tawdry and unnecessary.That said, I would highly recommend the rest of the book.

Factory Man about Bassett, Virginia..actually about the Bassett family who at one time was Bassett, Virginia is a spell bounding read. I love the way Beth Macy built the town from the ground up with each family generation. The history of the family members and their drive to make something of the family and the town could be about many towns in America but this story is about the farm land and farmers along with slaves becoming furniture businesses on an international level. The family did not always agree on who was to run the different furniture factories...cousins and in-laws against blood-born Bassetts were often at odds with each other which made this read like fiction.The town of Bassett became a boom town due to good management and a love for the business and dedication to the workers. The workers were also dedicated to the business since money was good and no longer days in the hot sun and rain raising cotton in the fields. The mansions were built on the hill away from Smith River enough to get out of the flood plain but within seeing distance of the factories and the smokestacks.The railroad was built through Basset and this added to the prosperity. Wood was plentiful in the hills surrounding the county and life became better for all living within the area....until along came the Japanese, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, etc. who could buy the wood, have it shipped and make the furniture ad ship back to the US for a much less price...Whoa be gone one factory, then two, then three...workers lost their jobs; poverty set in for many in Bassett and surrounding furniture producing areas. It became a political game to keep making furniture in America and JBIII was the man to get it done. He is a funny, determined, goal-driven man with a fight on his hands. A truly great character in the history of the furniture business and Bassett, Virginia.This is a marvelous history book written by a newspaper woman who get to the heart of the furniture business and the family. YOU will love this book if you like to read stories about our nation's road to prosperity, industry and family legends. I got my book downloaded onto my Kindle from Amazon. Get yours now and then look at the bottom or back of your furniture to see where it was made.

Un ouvrage qui étudie le cas de l'industrie du meuble américain, à travers l'histoire courageuse d'un héritier d'entreprise qui sauva son usine, et un peu sa région, en bataillant dur pour améliorer la compétitivité de son outil de travail, mais surtout en dénonçant le dumping chinois et obtenant des compensations financières, face à l'opposition des importateurs.Une enquête de terrain très formatrice.

very well written and well researched story. The second part of the book is both exciting and very factual.A must read for those of us connected with the US furniture Industry and it's near total destruction of imports from China.

Very good read and fascinating story!

Good experience.