Factory Man
How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - and Helped Save an American Town
Published on 15. July 2014
464 pages
978-0-316-23156-5 (ISBN)
Description
The instant New York Times bestseller about one man's battle to save hundreds of jobs by demonstrating the greatness of American business.
The Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. Run by the same powerful Virginia family for generations, it was also the center of life in Bassett, Virginia. But beginning in the 1980s, the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately Bassett was forced to send its production overseas.
One man fought back: John Bassett III, a shrewd and determined third-generation factory man, now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of more than $90 million. In Factory Man, Beth Macy brings to life Bassett's deeply personal furniture and family story, along with a host of characters from an industry that was as cutthroat as it was colorful. As she shows how he uses legal maneuvers, factory efficiencies, and sheer grit and cunning to save hundreds of jobs, she also reveals the truth about modern industry in America.
The Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. Run by the same powerful Virginia family for generations, it was also the center of life in Bassett, Virginia. But beginning in the 1980s, the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately Bassett was forced to send its production overseas.
One man fought back: John Bassett III, a shrewd and determined third-generation factory man, now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of more than $90 million. In Factory Man, Beth Macy brings to life Bassett's deeply personal furniture and family story, along with a host of characters from an industry that was as cutthroat as it was colorful. As she shows how he uses legal maneuvers, factory efficiencies, and sheer grit and cunning to save hundreds of jobs, she also reveals the truth about modern industry in America.
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Beth Macy
Factory Man
How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save an American Town
Book
07/2014
Little Brown and Company
€43.50
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Beth Macy is the author of the widely acclaimed and bestselling books Truevine and Factory Man. Based in Roanoke, Virginia for three decades, her reporting has won more than a dozen national awards, including a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Welcome
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Family Tree: A Virginia Furniture Dynasty
- Prologue: The Dusty Road to Dalian
- PART I
- Chapter 1. The Tipoff
- Chapter 2. The Original Outsourcer
- Chapter 3. The Town the Daddy Rabbits Built
- Chapter 4. Hilltop Hierarchy
- PART II
- Chapter 5. The Cousin Company
- Chapter 6. Company Man
- Chapter 7. Lineage and Love
- PART III
- Chapter 8. Navigating the New Landscape
- Chapter 9. Sweet Ole Bob (SOB)
- Chapter 10. The Mount Airy Ploy
- Chapter 11. The Family Elbow
- PART IV
- Chapter 12. Schooling the Chinese
- Chapter 13. Bird-Doggin' the Backwaters
- Chapter 14. Selling the Masses
- PART V
- Chapter 15. The Storm Before the Tsunami
- Chapter 16. Trouble in the 'Ville
- Chapter 17. Stretching Out the Snake
- Chapter 18. The Dalian Dance Card
- PART VI
- Chapter 19. Gathering the Troops
- Chapter 20. Mr. Bassett Goes to Washington
- Chapter 21. Factory Requiem
- PART VII
- Chapter 22. Million-Dollar Backlash
- Chapter 23. Copper Wires and Pink Slips
- Chapter 24. Shakedown Street
- PART VIII
- Chapter 25. Mud Turtle
- Chapter 26. The Replacements
- Chapter 27. "Sheila, Get Me the Governor!"
- Epilogue: The Smith River Twitch
- Photos
- Acknowledgments
- Reading Group Guide
- A conversation with Beth Macy
- Beth Macy's recommended reading
- Questions and topics for discussion
- Praise for Beth Macy's "Factory Man
- A Preview of Beth Macy's "Truevine
- Notes
- About the Author
- Books by Beth Macy
- Newsletters
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
