Summary of Beth Macy's Factory Man

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The impact of globalization on southwest Virginia was not being documented by other media outlets. It was up to writers and photographers like Jared and me to paint the long-view picture of what had happened when, one after another, the textile and then the furniture factories closed and set up shop in Mexico, China, and Vietnam.

#2 The town of Galax, about seventy miles away from Rocky Mount, had a man who had bucked the trend of unemployment. He was from the family that had once run the largest furniture-making operation in the world.

#3 I would meet Wanda Perdue, a former Stanley Furniture worker, outside a community college computer lab. She had traveled to Myrtle Beach three years before, her first time seeing the ocean. She wanted me to see what happened in Indonesia and explain to her why we couldn’t do that in America anymore.

#4 The globalization of manufacturing has brought many benefits, but it has also displaced many workers. I remember riding with my sister to pick up my mom from work at Grimes, the aircraft-lighting factory in Urbana, Ohio.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822537491

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Beth Macy's Factory Man

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The impact of globalization on southwest Virginia was not being documented by other media outlets. It was up to writers and photographers like Jared and me to paint the long-view picture of what had happened when, one after another, the textile and then the furniture factories closed and set up shop in Mexico, China, and Vietnam.

#2

The town of Galax, about seventy miles away from Rocky Mount, had a man who had bucked the trend of unemployment. He was from the family that had once run the largest furniture-making operation in the world.

#3

I would meet Wanda Perdue, a former Stanley Furniture worker, outside a community college computer lab. She had traveled to Myrtle Beach three years before, her first time seeing the ocean. She wanted me to see what happened in Indonesia and explain to her why we couldn’t do that in America anymore.

#4

The globalization of manufacturing has brought many benefits, but it has also displaced many workers. I remember riding with my sister to pick up my mom from work at Grimes, the aircraft-lighting factory in Urbana, Ohio.

#5

I knew I had to meet the man who had kept his small factory going and turned it into the largest wooden-bedroom-furniture factory in America. I got on the highway to Galax to meet the Southern patriarch, then seventy-four, at his Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Company.

#6

Delano Thomasson, the furniture store owner, explained how globalization had taken a huge bite out of his business. He knew all about JBIII’s covert mission to Dalian, China, and he had his own version of the evil-brother-in-law story.

#7

Mary’s story explains how the American furniture industry was brought to the UK from Virginia via Tultex.

#8

JBIII was born in a small town in Virginia named Horsepasture. The Smith River dominated everything there, and it nearly ruined everything when it flooded in 1937. The family had been praying for a boy, who would one day run the growing furniture dynasty.

#9

Slavery was still present in Bassett Furniture’s town, and its Jim Crow legacy was key in the company’s development.

#10

The Bassett family, who built the furniture empire, were descendants of a long line of prominent Bassetts. John Henry Bassett, J. D. ’s father, owned just two slaves. He relied mainly on family hands to work the farm.

#11

After the Civil War, the South was