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Factory Man

How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local-- and Helped Save An American Town
Sep 23, 2014writermala rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
found this book at the same time Fascinating and Gut-wrenching. Beth Macy has explored the History of the factory town of Bassett Virginia, its progress to becoming the foremost manufacturer of quality furniture and its eventual decline on losing market share to imports. So, how could this be interesting? The author tells the story of the Bassett family along with the story of furniture manufacture. The infighting and the family politics is what makes it so. I thought I'd be skimming through the book to see how imports jeopardized American manufacture. Instead I read every page and savored the details of John Bassett III's personality and his fight to keep his factories running.