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Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A.
A moving and eye-opening look at the story of manufacturing in America, whether it can ever successfully return to our shores, and why our nation depends on it, told through the experience of one young couple in Maine as they attempt to rebuild a lost industry, ethically. • From the best-selling author of Into the Raging Sea
Meet Ben and Whitney Waxman, two tireless idealists attempting to do the produce an American-made, union-made, all American-sourced sweatshirt—an American hoodie.
Ben spent a decade organizing workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin, fighting for Americans at a time when national support for unions had sunk to an all-time low. Struggling with depression and a drug dependency, Ben lands back in his hometown of Portland, Maine, desperate to prove that ethical manufacturing is possible. There, he meets Whitney, a bartender wrestling with her own complicated past. In each other they see a better future, a version of the American dream they can build together.
Making It in America is a deeply personal account of one couple's quest to change the world. As they navigate private struggles, international trade wars, and a global pandemic, their story carries us across the nation and across time, from the cotton fields of Mississippi to New York City’s hollowed-out garment district to a family-owned zipper company in Los Angeles to the enormous knit-and-dye factories in North Carolina. Throughout, we grapple with what "Made in the USA" really means to Americans in the twenty-first century.
Making It in America also offers a unique look at global politics, economics, and labor through the story of textile manufacturing. It was the demand for cheap cloth that sparked the industrial revolution. It was the brutality of the textile industry that first drove workers to organize.
Making It in America reveals how profoundly manufacturing shapes all of us. Each twist and turn of the Waxmans' quest tells us how we got here, where we are now, and where we're headed—through the people that produce the fabric of our lives.
Meet Ben and Whitney Waxman, two tireless idealists attempting to do the produce an American-made, union-made, all American-sourced sweatshirt—an American hoodie.
Ben spent a decade organizing workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin, fighting for Americans at a time when national support for unions had sunk to an all-time low. Struggling with depression and a drug dependency, Ben lands back in his hometown of Portland, Maine, desperate to prove that ethical manufacturing is possible. There, he meets Whitney, a bartender wrestling with her own complicated past. In each other they see a better future, a version of the American dream they can build together.
Making It in America is a deeply personal account of one couple's quest to change the world. As they navigate private struggles, international trade wars, and a global pandemic, their story carries us across the nation and across time, from the cotton fields of Mississippi to New York City’s hollowed-out garment district to a family-owned zipper company in Los Angeles to the enormous knit-and-dye factories in North Carolina. Throughout, we grapple with what "Made in the USA" really means to Americans in the twenty-first century.
Making It in America also offers a unique look at global politics, economics, and labor through the story of textile manufacturing. It was the demand for cheap cloth that sparked the industrial revolution. It was the brutality of the textile industry that first drove workers to organize.
Making It in America reveals how profoundly manufacturing shapes all of us. Each twist and turn of the Waxmans' quest tells us how we got here, where we are now, and where we're headed—through the people that produce the fabric of our lives.
355 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 9, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
January 22, 2024
Up until the afterword I was more or less on board with the story being told here as I too want to believe in the reshoring notion. However, we learn at the end (spoilers?) that one of the managers working side by side with the efficiency consultant chose to go back to the food industry rather than stick it out with American Roots. One has to be a fairly terrible employer for an employee to choose the restaurant industry over production, which was indicative that a lot of the story being spun was far more idealistic than the reality on the ground. Which leads me to believe it’s going to take a bit more than the invisible hand to reshore businesses and that perhaps Slade was telling the story she wanted to tell rather than the actuality observed in Maine.
July 21, 2024
The author was too focused on sharing her own political beliefs and persuading the reader to be pro-union. I am pro union and pro manufacturing in the USA but I didn't enjoy this book at all.The book feels like a lot of essays poorly stitched together. Parts of the book are about history, politics, unions, the backstory of the American Roots founders, their love story, manufacturing garments, the pandemic, and random personal anecdotes -drinking coffee, looking out the window, being angry about things the former president was saying, the images on the wall of the office, and several other sections that left me scratching my head wondering why I was reading this book. I wish this book success as I hope there will be more books discussing unions, manufacturing in America, small business issues, manufacturing history and political issues; while only focusing on one or two of those subjects so that all these topics aren't crammed into a single book. Although some of the topics in this book were interesting, I couldn't honestly give this book a positive review.
February 16, 2024
This is a deep look at garment manufacturing in the US through the lens of examining one company, American Roots, and its struggles to stay afloat while keeping its integrity of all American made components in its clothing. The book looks at everything from sourcing zippers and cotton to how NAFTA and the current USMCA sent clothing companies to China, where workers get paid 7% of the garment cost, if that.
This book is so incredibly compelling and well written and also frustrating and infuriating. If you have ever looked into the high cost of cheap clothes, this book takes things further and shows how difficult it is to change the status quo. While the author discusses the changes policymakers are implementing as far as tax breaks for clean energy producers, there is very little being done to bring garment making back to the US at a fair price point and only a handful of companies working to make the change. This book was eye-opening.
This book is so incredibly compelling and well written and also frustrating and infuriating. If you have ever looked into the high cost of cheap clothes, this book takes things further and shows how difficult it is to change the status quo. While the author discusses the changes policymakers are implementing as far as tax breaks for clean energy producers, there is very little being done to bring garment making back to the US at a fair price point and only a handful of companies working to make the change. This book was eye-opening.
January 31, 2024
This is a surprisingly enjoyable, readable, and fascinating account of a venture in Maine that seems to attempt the impossible - a viable US manufacturer of clothing items (hoodies; sweatshirts, etc.) that sells high quality products produced by a union workforce that features a wide variety of workers from different social backgrounds that have stable employment and good pay, and that also makes a profit. A real made in the USA story.
It takes a while for different parts of the story to come together, but when they do, the book is effective. The book has a number of more informational interludes to tell a broader story, but it is sometimes unclear if these are really necessary or more filler for the book. Overall, it is a very fine read and I highly recommend it.
…after thinking about this a bit more, the author may be trying to do too much with this story. That does not take away from the value of the story but makes it harder to learn from it. The manufacturing story is what drew me to the book. I worked in factories growing up and miss them when my children grew up in the service economy. Factories are some of the most interesting places anywhere and we are poorer for their exodus overseas. Ms. Slide goes further and argues that without deep knowledge of how to make things, the ability to innovate will be impaired. It is not just a matter of being highly motivated and being part of an involved workforce, people literally need to think of how they relate to the world in terms of making products and services, Although I cannot do justice to that idea here, this is a profound insight. From the book, the ability of the firm to pivot in response to various crises and opportunities very much involved knowing how to best make its products subject to all of the various constraints in ways to met their customer needs.
While manufacturing is the headline story, this is also about managing a start-up from scratch and growing it to the “next level”. This is a hugely stressful burden for family entrepreneurs and no doubt part of why so many new ventures fail. The story of American Roots is a rich example of how such a venture can succeed - although I am reluctant to call this “textbook” given the particularities of the problems that Ben and Whitney faced in building the company. So the manufacturing story is linked to the start-up story, although one does not commonly link manufacturing and start-ups in the US economy these days.
The timing and circumstances of the story are also important. The deindustrialization of the US is an undertold story that should be told more frequently. The linkage of that with the financial crisis following 2008 was also important to what happened. Then there was the pandemic. The shift to mask-making was critical, of course, but who knew this was coming. The only precedent for COVID was the Spanish Flu of 1918-1919. This was not well written about either, although Barry’s work on the great influenza is becoming available on audiobooks. What lessons does one draw from successfully navigating COVID? The story of American Roots is amazing but is potentially overdetermined by all that was going on there at once.
This is not to take away from the value of the book. It is less clear what parts of the story should be focused upon for policy concerns, there are lots of options for this intriguing case.
It takes a while for different parts of the story to come together, but when they do, the book is effective. The book has a number of more informational interludes to tell a broader story, but it is sometimes unclear if these are really necessary or more filler for the book. Overall, it is a very fine read and I highly recommend it.
…after thinking about this a bit more, the author may be trying to do too much with this story. That does not take away from the value of the story but makes it harder to learn from it. The manufacturing story is what drew me to the book. I worked in factories growing up and miss them when my children grew up in the service economy. Factories are some of the most interesting places anywhere and we are poorer for their exodus overseas. Ms. Slide goes further and argues that without deep knowledge of how to make things, the ability to innovate will be impaired. It is not just a matter of being highly motivated and being part of an involved workforce, people literally need to think of how they relate to the world in terms of making products and services, Although I cannot do justice to that idea here, this is a profound insight. From the book, the ability of the firm to pivot in response to various crises and opportunities very much involved knowing how to best make its products subject to all of the various constraints in ways to met their customer needs.
While manufacturing is the headline story, this is also about managing a start-up from scratch and growing it to the “next level”. This is a hugely stressful burden for family entrepreneurs and no doubt part of why so many new ventures fail. The story of American Roots is a rich example of how such a venture can succeed - although I am reluctant to call this “textbook” given the particularities of the problems that Ben and Whitney faced in building the company. So the manufacturing story is linked to the start-up story, although one does not commonly link manufacturing and start-ups in the US economy these days.
The timing and circumstances of the story are also important. The deindustrialization of the US is an undertold story that should be told more frequently. The linkage of that with the financial crisis following 2008 was also important to what happened. Then there was the pandemic. The shift to mask-making was critical, of course, but who knew this was coming. The only precedent for COVID was the Spanish Flu of 1918-1919. This was not well written about either, although Barry’s work on the great influenza is becoming available on audiobooks. What lessons does one draw from successfully navigating COVID? The story of American Roots is amazing but is potentially overdetermined by all that was going on there at once.
This is not to take away from the value of the book. It is less clear what parts of the story should be focused upon for policy concerns, there are lots of options for this intriguing case.
Currently reading
December 20, 2024Source: Libby E-book,Audiobook
Notes on Kindle Published
in Process
In the free market economy, someone always has their thumb on the scale.
Notes on Kindle Published
in Process
In the free market economy, someone always has their thumb on the scale.
March 20, 2024
In Making It in America, Rachel Slade sets off to find a unicorn business -- one whose supply chain, labor pool, and operations are all located in the United States. Slade discovers the Portland, Maine-based apparel manufacturing company American Roots, founded in 2013 and still run in 2024 by its co-founders, married couple Ben and Whitney Waxman. She spends several years following and profiling the Waxmans as they navigate challenges of being a startup, cash-poor business, pivoting during the pandemic to making PPE instead of clothing, and going through post-pandemic growing pains as they face labor shortages during the Great Resignation and ultimately shift their manufacturing strategy to ultra-efficiency like many of the overseas companies they initially eschewed.
I have mixed feelings on this book. Slade's narrative is highly politicized, which doesn't lend itself to objectivity and circumspection as she discusses the history of labor, manufacturing, and small businesses in the US. It's a shame that many of the seminal small businesses founded on ethical principles are no longer around, but objectively speaking, the average lifespan of a publicly-traded company in the US is around 21 years (as of 2020, looking at the S&P 500 index), and for a small, private business, it's often much less. American Roots could have easily gone under in their early years due to poor business planning; even today, their value proposition is shaky -- while they market heavily to various labor unions and probably sell at wholesale prices with bulk orders, their direct-to-consumer offering consists of unisex hoodies and sweatshirts that retail for the price of spendy brands like Lululemon, and double that of trendier brands like Carhartt and ten times that of hoodies at Costco. In our inflated financial landscape, ethical consumers with the luxury of disposable income still have to make hard choices -- do they ethically source their food, household goods, or clothes? Having read other books on ethical fashion (see To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick--and How We Can Fight Back, Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future, and The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good), the prevailing thought of ethical consumers seems to be to buy less clothing and buy secondhand clothing when possible.
I did find this book interesting, though, and would recommend it to people interested in US manufacturing and supply chain issues.
Further reading (in addition to the books linked above):
Sold Out: How Broken Supply Chains, Surging Inflation, and Political Instability Will Sink the Global Economy by James Rickards (a right-leaning look at many of the same issues)
Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by Rose George
Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door-Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy by Christopher Mims
I have mixed feelings on this book. Slade's narrative is highly politicized, which doesn't lend itself to objectivity and circumspection as she discusses the history of labor, manufacturing, and small businesses in the US. It's a shame that many of the seminal small businesses founded on ethical principles are no longer around, but objectively speaking, the average lifespan of a publicly-traded company in the US is around 21 years (as of 2020, looking at the S&P 500 index), and for a small, private business, it's often much less. American Roots could have easily gone under in their early years due to poor business planning; even today, their value proposition is shaky -- while they market heavily to various labor unions and probably sell at wholesale prices with bulk orders, their direct-to-consumer offering consists of unisex hoodies and sweatshirts that retail for the price of spendy brands like Lululemon, and double that of trendier brands like Carhartt and ten times that of hoodies at Costco. In our inflated financial landscape, ethical consumers with the luxury of disposable income still have to make hard choices -- do they ethically source their food, household goods, or clothes? Having read other books on ethical fashion (see To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick--and How We Can Fight Back, Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future, and The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good), the prevailing thought of ethical consumers seems to be to buy less clothing and buy secondhand clothing when possible.
I did find this book interesting, though, and would recommend it to people interested in US manufacturing and supply chain issues.
Further reading (in addition to the books linked above):
Sold Out: How Broken Supply Chains, Surging Inflation, and Political Instability Will Sink the Global Economy by James Rickards (a right-leaning look at many of the same issues)
Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by Rose George
Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door-Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy by Christopher Mims
June 8, 2025
A riveting read about how hard it is to manufacture goods, specifically, clothing, in the United States. The author takes an in-depth analysis about a company in Maine, from its start and through covid, the owners, their New American workforce, the constant pivoting, and of course, the pandemic. It's also clear, to bring manufacturing back to this country, so many things have to change, including owners and top level managements compensation packages.
April 3, 2024
this book kinda wandered in strange directions. interesting story of a couple starting their made in america clothing manufacturing business, but at times it felt like the author was more focused on communicating her own political beliefs rather than information relevant to the characters the story centers around.
May 3, 2025
The subtitle is misleading - I was hoping for an analysis of American manufacturing overall but this ended up being a biography of the founders of American Roots. Some interesting tidbits, but I think anyone could get the same info by reading news articles about the brand.
May 26, 2024
Good premise but needed more anecdotes to break down the central theme of the book.
October 29, 2025
I really enjoyed the parts of this book about American Roots. Much of the labor history parts seemed poorly organized or scattershot. The book was interesting overall, if not a bit preachy.
November 25, 2025
This book is first and foremost a diatribe on liberal ideologies, with unions as the central theme (this coming from a center-left reader). And while the Waxmans are a great case study in the reviving of American manufacturing, their story throughout the book is painted as if it’s constantly at the merci of the news cycle. I suppose this book therefore is a portrait of certain undisciplined, modern American business owners - distracted by the politics du jour rather than laser-focused on production.
In any case, the book does highlight the reality that homegrown manufacturing has been sold out by private equity firms that ship American jobs overseas and collect on higher profit margins. Compounding the situation is foreign governments that play by their own rules and tip the scales in their own favor.
I did like the narrative storytelling in this book, which makes it engaging and easy to read, but would have liked to see it stay focused more on manufacturing and less on politics (or at least be more balanced in opinion). More examples of manufacturers trying to make it in America would’ve also been nice.
Overall, though, there are some lessons to be learned and truths to face in this book. For those reasons, it’s worth a read.
In any case, the book does highlight the reality that homegrown manufacturing has been sold out by private equity firms that ship American jobs overseas and collect on higher profit margins. Compounding the situation is foreign governments that play by their own rules and tip the scales in their own favor.
I did like the narrative storytelling in this book, which makes it engaging and easy to read, but would have liked to see it stay focused more on manufacturing and less on politics (or at least be more balanced in opinion). More examples of manufacturers trying to make it in America would’ve also been nice.
Overall, though, there are some lessons to be learned and truths to face in this book. For those reasons, it’s worth a read.
March 7, 2024
Very much wanted to enjoy this book and am highly sympathetic to its purposes and subjects. Would be a great magazine piece, or as a much-slimmed down book that just focused on the actual company in Maine. The big issue is all the extraneous stuff. Lots of under-developed discursions and jumping around on subjects that don’t feel very thought through or even relevant to the overall mission (even though I almost universally agree with the author’s viewpoint). Just didn’t add up. I would buy the sweatshirt though.
May 22, 2024
BRINGING MANUFACTURING BACK TO AMERICA: ONE FAMILY'S STRUGGLE
Since NAFTA took effect in 1994, “more than 60,000 American manufacturers permanently shut their doors. . . In textiles alone, more than a million manufacturing jobs evaporated between 1990 and 2019.” That fact, brought starkly to light in Rachel Slade’s powerful new book, Making It in America, frame the challenge faced by Ben and Whitney Waxman when they set out in 2015 to manufacture 100 percent American-sourced cotton hoodies with union labor. Their struggle to build a business is a superb example of the movement underway in the USA today to bring back manufacturing.
SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE OF GLOBALIZATION
The Waxmans “founded American Roots with a simple plan,” Slade writes. “Together, they would bring apparel manufacturing back to America. They would be uncompromising in their commitment to domestic sourcing and the welfare of their employees . . . never pay themselves more than four times their lowest worker’s wage , , , build a legacy company that they could someday bequeath to their employees or perhaps their own children . . . [and] build a community around making.” And in Making It in America, Slade shows just how difficult that challenge has proved to be.
ONE DETERMINED COUPLE’S STRUGGLE TO BRING BACK MANUFACTURING
The Waxmans’ company, American Roots, stands out from the other four thousand new US manufacturing companies that launched the same year. Because Ben Waxman is no run-of-the-mill entrepreneur. For years, he was an organizer in the uppermost reaches of the AFL-CIO. In fact, he worked closely with Rich Trumka, who led American labor from 2009 until his death in 2021. And Waxman left the AFL-CIO with a ferocious commitment to the labor movement. American Roots has been unionized since Day One. And most of its customers are union locals. It’s not too much to say that the company only survived because of its continuing support from the labor movement.
Now, that fact doesn’t detract in any way from the Waxman’s’ heroic effort to build their business. Even with a powerful commitment from labor, they faced what seemed insurmountable obstacles. And their pivot in 2020 from cotton hoodies to masks and shields against covid was nothing short of brilliant. Theirs is the quintessential American story. As much as any character out of Horatio Alger, they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.
THE STEEP PRICE OF GLOBALIZATION
Globalization has been a boon to China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Mexico, the Philippines, and many other struggling countries around the world where US manufacturing jobs have gravitated. But its impact on the American economy has been mixed at best. It’s true that US consumers now pay lower prices on many of the things we buy. But the durability of those goods has often declined sharply. For example, Slade reports, “The quality of the garments we wear and discard has dropped so low that 40 percent of [used clothing] shipments to Ghana end up in landfill, or worse, on the country’s beaches.”
However, the greatest impact of globalization in the USA has been to lower the quality of life for millions of Americans and widen the gap between rich and poor. Because as manufacturing has fallen, millions of union jobs have been lost. (In 1993, the year before NAFTA, union jobs represented 15.7% of the workforce. Thirty years later, they accounted for only ten percent.) That shift has contributed in a major way to the stagnation of working people’s wages.
For example, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the median annual wage of high school graduates employed full-time in 2000 was $28,000. Now, in 2024, it’s only $25,700. Meanwhile, over that same 25-year period, median household income in the US has risen from $67,500 to $74,600. And that rise reflects the enormous shift of resources from working families to the growing ranks of the superrich. Because over roughly that same period the top 1% of earners captured twenty-six percent of the country’s wealth versus seventeen percent at the beginning—a gain of nine percent, or more than half again as much. Globalization isn’t the only factor accounting for this—but it’s certainly played a role.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachel Slade’s bio on her author website reads in part as follows: “Rachel Slade spent a decade in the city magazine trenches at Boston magazine—first as the design editor, ultimately as executive editor. Her two-part story about Boston’s secretive planning and development agency won national awards and laid the groundwork for Mayor Michelle Wu’s sweeping reforms to the city’s planning processes.
“She earned her BA in political science from Barnard College and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. She splits her time between Brookline, Massachusetts, and Rockport, Maine.” Making It in America is her second book.
Since NAFTA took effect in 1994, “more than 60,000 American manufacturers permanently shut their doors. . . In textiles alone, more than a million manufacturing jobs evaporated between 1990 and 2019.” That fact, brought starkly to light in Rachel Slade’s powerful new book, Making It in America, frame the challenge faced by Ben and Whitney Waxman when they set out in 2015 to manufacture 100 percent American-sourced cotton hoodies with union labor. Their struggle to build a business is a superb example of the movement underway in the USA today to bring back manufacturing.
SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE OF GLOBALIZATION
The Waxmans “founded American Roots with a simple plan,” Slade writes. “Together, they would bring apparel manufacturing back to America. They would be uncompromising in their commitment to domestic sourcing and the welfare of their employees . . . never pay themselves more than four times their lowest worker’s wage , , , build a legacy company that they could someday bequeath to their employees or perhaps their own children . . . [and] build a community around making.” And in Making It in America, Slade shows just how difficult that challenge has proved to be.
ONE DETERMINED COUPLE’S STRUGGLE TO BRING BACK MANUFACTURING
The Waxmans’ company, American Roots, stands out from the other four thousand new US manufacturing companies that launched the same year. Because Ben Waxman is no run-of-the-mill entrepreneur. For years, he was an organizer in the uppermost reaches of the AFL-CIO. In fact, he worked closely with Rich Trumka, who led American labor from 2009 until his death in 2021. And Waxman left the AFL-CIO with a ferocious commitment to the labor movement. American Roots has been unionized since Day One. And most of its customers are union locals. It’s not too much to say that the company only survived because of its continuing support from the labor movement.
Now, that fact doesn’t detract in any way from the Waxman’s’ heroic effort to build their business. Even with a powerful commitment from labor, they faced what seemed insurmountable obstacles. And their pivot in 2020 from cotton hoodies to masks and shields against covid was nothing short of brilliant. Theirs is the quintessential American story. As much as any character out of Horatio Alger, they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.
THE STEEP PRICE OF GLOBALIZATION
Globalization has been a boon to China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Mexico, the Philippines, and many other struggling countries around the world where US manufacturing jobs have gravitated. But its impact on the American economy has been mixed at best. It’s true that US consumers now pay lower prices on many of the things we buy. But the durability of those goods has often declined sharply. For example, Slade reports, “The quality of the garments we wear and discard has dropped so low that 40 percent of [used clothing] shipments to Ghana end up in landfill, or worse, on the country’s beaches.”
However, the greatest impact of globalization in the USA has been to lower the quality of life for millions of Americans and widen the gap between rich and poor. Because as manufacturing has fallen, millions of union jobs have been lost. (In 1993, the year before NAFTA, union jobs represented 15.7% of the workforce. Thirty years later, they accounted for only ten percent.) That shift has contributed in a major way to the stagnation of working people’s wages.
For example, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the median annual wage of high school graduates employed full-time in 2000 was $28,000. Now, in 2024, it’s only $25,700. Meanwhile, over that same 25-year period, median household income in the US has risen from $67,500 to $74,600. And that rise reflects the enormous shift of resources from working families to the growing ranks of the superrich. Because over roughly that same period the top 1% of earners captured twenty-six percent of the country’s wealth versus seventeen percent at the beginning—a gain of nine percent, or more than half again as much. Globalization isn’t the only factor accounting for this—but it’s certainly played a role.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachel Slade’s bio on her author website reads in part as follows: “Rachel Slade spent a decade in the city magazine trenches at Boston magazine—first as the design editor, ultimately as executive editor. Her two-part story about Boston’s secretive planning and development agency won national awards and laid the groundwork for Mayor Michelle Wu’s sweeping reforms to the city’s planning processes.
“She earned her BA in political science from Barnard College and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. She splits her time between Brookline, Massachusetts, and Rockport, Maine.” Making It in America is her second book.
October 8, 2024
Split review .... the story about the Waxmans, including the run-up to meeting (which I see as semi-necessary backgrounding) and their attempts to get American Roots off the ground? 4.25 stars. (I'll tackle some of the BS from low-star reviewers in just a sec.)
The broader picture of apparel manufacturing, manufacturing in general, and broader background issues? Barely 3. So, that gets us to around 3.5 overall, rounded up.
The low reviews are primarily wingnuts. That said, hearkening to the second half of my review, Democrats often still take union votes for granted. Third parties of the further left than Greens are too tiny to register on organized labor's radar, and while Greens are officially "ecosocialist," the environmental movement in general (as well as other liberal-to-left liberal organized activism) has often not sat well with organized labor. (See Planned Parenthood of Colorado's union-busting.
Within the duopoly structure, then, other than a grifting Teamster's prez sticking his head up Trump's rectal orifice, and of course, police "unions" (although Kamala IS a Cop), Democrats are the default only game in town on official leadership.
But, you still have Midwestern white folks, like the three-star reviewer from Kalamazoo, who says he's interested in supporting manufacturing in the USA then says "hire American." The Trumpian mask slips. Slade addressed this, noting the late AFL-CIO head Richard Trumpka talked about organized labor's past history of racism to his own members. Unfortunately, a lot of it is still there.
Kudos to the Waxmans for being of a new generation, and working with a multicultural, multiethnic workforce and even encouraging it.
It's a good story and a good narrative. Sadly, the Waxmans can't get ahead of the game because the game keeps moving on them. That includes COVID, post-COVID Chinese buyup of cotton, etc. And, Ben admits he's not the best manager.
==
Now, the 3-star half of the book.
The introduction is kind of hit-and-miss. Totally correct on Adam Smith’s invisible hand, but doesn’t offer the background of Enlightenment Deism. The collapse of the Mughal Empire et al, into the voracity of the East India Company then the British Raj, is more complex than sketched here. See "The Anarchy." Let us add that the Mughal Empire was the first time before British Raj that the first time the entire subcontinent was under one rule — most Indian empires didn’t include South India. (The Delhi Sultanat lacked large chunks of East Central India, and did not control today’s Pakistan.
Next, no, not all “developing” nations, or “semi-developed” ones if one wants a middle tier, “lack the political will” to regulate textile related work. As slave labor in Xinjiang shows, China exerts the political will to deliberately not regulate this. Oh, and speaking of garment-dumping in Africa? Is ALL of that from Europe and North America?
Could have used a bit more Wendell Berry on dignity of work, to the degree it is of dignity?
Automation undercutting jobs not mentioned until the end and mainly bracketed when it is mentioned. That’s fine with apparel, where yes, there’s been some degree of automation for some time. Maybe it’s not so OK with other American manufacturing.
Climate change and shipping non-American made items to America not mentioned, along with the idea of a carbon tariff.
And, the issue of whether cotton, a thirsty crop, is more sustainable than recycled synthetics, or linen, or hemp or sister crops, is not discussed at all. Microplastics issues aside, sustainable synthetics are arguably better. Blends with some of the other items would keep costs lower and be better yet. Say, 20 percent recycled synthetics, 20 percent linen, 15 percent hemp, 45 percent cotton. Are the Waxmans even looking at hemp, an "all-American" fabric? Are they, or their contractors for some things, able to work with blends?
Yes, we need national health care. We need to get rid of fee for service medicine as currently practiced in American, though, as well.
So, the book is 3.5 and kind of meandering, but bumped up because of wingnuts in general and racist ones in particular.
The broader picture of apparel manufacturing, manufacturing in general, and broader background issues? Barely 3. So, that gets us to around 3.5 overall, rounded up.
The low reviews are primarily wingnuts. That said, hearkening to the second half of my review, Democrats often still take union votes for granted. Third parties of the further left than Greens are too tiny to register on organized labor's radar, and while Greens are officially "ecosocialist," the environmental movement in general (as well as other liberal-to-left liberal organized activism) has often not sat well with organized labor. (See Planned Parenthood of Colorado's union-busting.
Within the duopoly structure, then, other than a grifting Teamster's prez sticking his head up Trump's rectal orifice, and of course, police "unions" (although Kamala IS a Cop), Democrats are the default only game in town on official leadership.
But, you still have Midwestern white folks, like the three-star reviewer from Kalamazoo, who says he's interested in supporting manufacturing in the USA then says "hire American." The Trumpian mask slips. Slade addressed this, noting the late AFL-CIO head Richard Trumpka talked about organized labor's past history of racism to his own members. Unfortunately, a lot of it is still there.
Kudos to the Waxmans for being of a new generation, and working with a multicultural, multiethnic workforce and even encouraging it.
It's a good story and a good narrative. Sadly, the Waxmans can't get ahead of the game because the game keeps moving on them. That includes COVID, post-COVID Chinese buyup of cotton, etc. And, Ben admits he's not the best manager.
==
Now, the 3-star half of the book.
The introduction is kind of hit-and-miss. Totally correct on Adam Smith’s invisible hand, but doesn’t offer the background of Enlightenment Deism. The collapse of the Mughal Empire et al, into the voracity of the East India Company then the British Raj, is more complex than sketched here. See "The Anarchy." Let us add that the Mughal Empire was the first time before British Raj that the first time the entire subcontinent was under one rule — most Indian empires didn’t include South India. (The Delhi Sultanat lacked large chunks of East Central India, and did not control today’s Pakistan.
Next, no, not all “developing” nations, or “semi-developed” ones if one wants a middle tier, “lack the political will” to regulate textile related work. As slave labor in Xinjiang shows, China exerts the political will to deliberately not regulate this. Oh, and speaking of garment-dumping in Africa? Is ALL of that from Europe and North America?
Could have used a bit more Wendell Berry on dignity of work, to the degree it is of dignity?
Automation undercutting jobs not mentioned until the end and mainly bracketed when it is mentioned. That’s fine with apparel, where yes, there’s been some degree of automation for some time. Maybe it’s not so OK with other American manufacturing.
Climate change and shipping non-American made items to America not mentioned, along with the idea of a carbon tariff.
And, the issue of whether cotton, a thirsty crop, is more sustainable than recycled synthetics, or linen, or hemp or sister crops, is not discussed at all. Microplastics issues aside, sustainable synthetics are arguably better. Blends with some of the other items would keep costs lower and be better yet. Say, 20 percent recycled synthetics, 20 percent linen, 15 percent hemp, 45 percent cotton. Are the Waxmans even looking at hemp, an "all-American" fabric? Are they, or their contractors for some things, able to work with blends?
Yes, we need national health care. We need to get rid of fee for service medicine as currently practiced in American, though, as well.
So, the book is 3.5 and kind of meandering, but bumped up because of wingnuts in general and racist ones in particular.
March 24, 2024
This is a great story well told. Slade does a fantastic job using the Waxman family as an example of the virtuous cycle that can result from "reshoring" production of many everyday items in our world. Our economy has undergone a generation of job loss on the altar of comparative advantage. The race to the bottom solely to increase profits seems like an idea who time has passed. From my vantage, most companies these days only care about the bottom line, not the socio-economic, environmental, and human costs of producing something, even everyday items like clothing, solely based on the lowest cost of production. This book provides a good example of the notion that doing the right thing can have financial benefits as well.
Slade asks a great existential question: how much extra are you willing to spend to buy something sourced and made in America? I find her argument entirely compatible with my political, economic and social views. I'll pay more if it will keep Americans employed, in good paying jobs, with benefits and with attendant economic benefits for the workers and community as well. More Americans working, paying taxes, spending their wages on other American-made goods, etc., can have a multiplying effect on restoring our nation's economic equilibrium, and spreading that positive effect among us all.
Slade rightly asks what's the advantage of producing things abroad more cheaply when in doing so, we lose our national ability to source and manufacture these same goods ourselves.
I was so taken by her story of American Roots that I went on-line and ordered their hoodies for my wife and myself. I'm fortunate that I can afford to buy hoodies that cost more than most items in my wardrobe. I don't need another hoodie, nor does my wife. However, after reading this book, I wanted to put my money where my mouth is, and support American made products and a company like American Roots trying to do the right thing for themselves, their community and their country.
For businesses like American Roots to survive, we need a critical mass of Americans to hear this story and provide their support, via purchasing these, and similarly made goods, to sustain small, local manufacturers like the Waxmans. We need to support businesses that are conscious of giving back to, and sustaining their communities by hiring and spending their money within those same, or nearby, communities. In addition, American roots sourced all their raw materials from American-made factories. The economies of scale that could result have the potential to put economic life back into many depressed communities who have lost jobs and wages to outsourcing and lower labor costs abroad.
The virtuous cycle of helping your neighbors, as well as countrymen and -women, seems apparent to me. Sure I can get a hoodie at Wal-Mart for a fraction of the price, likely made in Central America. However, in buying from Wal-Mart, I'm contributing to the misery of those workers struggling on paltry wages, the environmental damage wrought by manufactures in China and other countries that mindlessly dump toxic waste and industrial effluence into the local air and water supplies, etc.. Is it worth the greater cost to our economy and environment? We need to start thinking in those terms when purchasing the multitude of extra stuff we buy but don't necessarily need.
Even if you don't agree with the premise that we as a nation are better off when we conceive, design, build and manufacture things ourselves, reading this book might open your mind to different views about how and what we purchase and the hidden internal and external costs associated with those decision. If this book doesn't make you think, you're not paying attention.
Slade asks a great existential question: how much extra are you willing to spend to buy something sourced and made in America? I find her argument entirely compatible with my political, economic and social views. I'll pay more if it will keep Americans employed, in good paying jobs, with benefits and with attendant economic benefits for the workers and community as well. More Americans working, paying taxes, spending their wages on other American-made goods, etc., can have a multiplying effect on restoring our nation's economic equilibrium, and spreading that positive effect among us all.
Slade rightly asks what's the advantage of producing things abroad more cheaply when in doing so, we lose our national ability to source and manufacture these same goods ourselves.
I was so taken by her story of American Roots that I went on-line and ordered their hoodies for my wife and myself. I'm fortunate that I can afford to buy hoodies that cost more than most items in my wardrobe. I don't need another hoodie, nor does my wife. However, after reading this book, I wanted to put my money where my mouth is, and support American made products and a company like American Roots trying to do the right thing for themselves, their community and their country.
For businesses like American Roots to survive, we need a critical mass of Americans to hear this story and provide their support, via purchasing these, and similarly made goods, to sustain small, local manufacturers like the Waxmans. We need to support businesses that are conscious of giving back to, and sustaining their communities by hiring and spending their money within those same, or nearby, communities. In addition, American roots sourced all their raw materials from American-made factories. The economies of scale that could result have the potential to put economic life back into many depressed communities who have lost jobs and wages to outsourcing and lower labor costs abroad.
The virtuous cycle of helping your neighbors, as well as countrymen and -women, seems apparent to me. Sure I can get a hoodie at Wal-Mart for a fraction of the price, likely made in Central America. However, in buying from Wal-Mart, I'm contributing to the misery of those workers struggling on paltry wages, the environmental damage wrought by manufactures in China and other countries that mindlessly dump toxic waste and industrial effluence into the local air and water supplies, etc.. Is it worth the greater cost to our economy and environment? We need to start thinking in those terms when purchasing the multitude of extra stuff we buy but don't necessarily need.
Even if you don't agree with the premise that we as a nation are better off when we conceive, design, build and manufacture things ourselves, reading this book might open your mind to different views about how and what we purchase and the hidden internal and external costs associated with those decision. If this book doesn't make you think, you're not paying attention.
April 29, 2025
This book was interesting and I was glad to hear of American Roots’ continued success. Their organizing beliefs are a somewhat unusual combination- they want manufacturing done domestically in America and the products bought by Americans, which is typically associated with conservatives, but they’re also pro worker and pro immigrant. So I enjoyed seeing some arguments for “reshoring” from the perspective of people whose other beliefs I share.
But I wasn’t wholly convinced. I was won over by Slade’s arguments against free trade and NAFTA, but I feel attempts to “undo” a policy by resetting to the pre-”solution” state are misguided, especially when over thirty years have passed since the agreement and the world has changed dramatically. We have fond ideas of being connected to the physical fruits of our labor, but I just don’t know that that era is coming back. I largely agree with another reviewer who suggested that diversification of imports is a better idea than the reshoring of jobs that, frankly, most modern Americans would hate working.
Positives:
I liked hearing about the specific sourcing and supply chain issues that face a real company when they attempt to reshore, like locating American made zippers.
I think the author is right about the effect of Chinese intellectual property violations and underhanded government subsidies for its businesses, and I agree that reducing our dependence on China/its satellite Southeast Asian countries is vital.
I also agree that buying American could be the moral choice for both our own people and those abroad, if it leads to increased prosperity and happiness for ourselves, and a reduction in dangerous, abusive sweatshop environments overseas.
One of my favorite parts was the chapter on the particularly American history of the hoodie. I have worn plenty of them, but knew nothing about their origins.
Issues:
I would have appreciated a section on how buying American intersects with buying environmentally responsible goods. Recently I’ve been trying to reorient my behavior as a consumer by buying local, or at least in a chain store with a location in my town, to avoid supporting Amazon and the environmental cost of shipping. My intention wasn’t to support American businesses necessarily, but conveniently these two goals can go hand in hand. I would have liked to read a little more about how the choice to buy American has an environmental component, and even a discussion on what to do if those goals conflict.
I would also have appreciated a more forthright engagement with the issue of automation. Surely the most obvious questions in response to her propositions are, 1) “how will Americans afford American made goods when they are 5x more expensive?” and 2) “is it a good idea to invest in reshoring the manufacture of physical items, when this type of work is the lowest hanging fruit for automation?”
She elides this problem by saying that the clothing industry is not particularly conducive to automation- which is true, a human has to sew every stitch of every t-shirt you buy- but I think she may have purposefully chosen a clothing company to be able to avoid discussing this issue. With even knowledge jobs under threat now, and even democratically elected governments too timid to pass governance that protects the human right to productive work, I struggle to see the wisdom in reshoring even though ideologically it makes sense to me.
Worth reading as a case study of what reshoring would actually look like, but not wholly convincing. Even though I'd love to be convinced on this issue! 2 / 5 stars.
But I wasn’t wholly convinced. I was won over by Slade’s arguments against free trade and NAFTA, but I feel attempts to “undo” a policy by resetting to the pre-”solution” state are misguided, especially when over thirty years have passed since the agreement and the world has changed dramatically. We have fond ideas of being connected to the physical fruits of our labor, but I just don’t know that that era is coming back. I largely agree with another reviewer who suggested that diversification of imports is a better idea than the reshoring of jobs that, frankly, most modern Americans would hate working.
Positives:
I liked hearing about the specific sourcing and supply chain issues that face a real company when they attempt to reshore, like locating American made zippers.
I think the author is right about the effect of Chinese intellectual property violations and underhanded government subsidies for its businesses, and I agree that reducing our dependence on China/its satellite Southeast Asian countries is vital.
I also agree that buying American could be the moral choice for both our own people and those abroad, if it leads to increased prosperity and happiness for ourselves, and a reduction in dangerous, abusive sweatshop environments overseas.
One of my favorite parts was the chapter on the particularly American history of the hoodie. I have worn plenty of them, but knew nothing about their origins.
Issues:
I would have appreciated a section on how buying American intersects with buying environmentally responsible goods. Recently I’ve been trying to reorient my behavior as a consumer by buying local, or at least in a chain store with a location in my town, to avoid supporting Amazon and the environmental cost of shipping. My intention wasn’t to support American businesses necessarily, but conveniently these two goals can go hand in hand. I would have liked to read a little more about how the choice to buy American has an environmental component, and even a discussion on what to do if those goals conflict.
I would also have appreciated a more forthright engagement with the issue of automation. Surely the most obvious questions in response to her propositions are, 1) “how will Americans afford American made goods when they are 5x more expensive?” and 2) “is it a good idea to invest in reshoring the manufacture of physical items, when this type of work is the lowest hanging fruit for automation?”
She elides this problem by saying that the clothing industry is not particularly conducive to automation- which is true, a human has to sew every stitch of every t-shirt you buy- but I think she may have purposefully chosen a clothing company to be able to avoid discussing this issue. With even knowledge jobs under threat now, and even democratically elected governments too timid to pass governance that protects the human right to productive work, I struggle to see the wisdom in reshoring even though ideologically it makes sense to me.
Worth reading as a case study of what reshoring would actually look like, but not wholly convincing. Even though I'd love to be convinced on this issue! 2 / 5 stars.
June 9, 2025
(3.5 stars but rounding down)
Well, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I picked up Making It in America: The Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the USA. And after finishing it, I’m not really sure what to think of it either.
SYNOPSIS: Um, it’s really difficult to manufacture anything in America these days.
So, Making It in America is focused on a lot of different things. On one hand, it details the history of manufacturing in America and the creation of NAFTA and the move to offshore our manufacturing to other countries that can do it faster and cheaper.
On a much bigger other hand, it details the work of the Waxmans as they build a company that sources only American resources to make 100% made in America hoodies. Their company has had A LOT of ups and downs, stemming from the basic challenge of finding the materials they need while also dealing with unforeseen challenges such as the Covid pandemic.
Their company consists of primarily immigrant workers and operates out of Maine.
I actually really found the plight of the Waxmans to be interesting, and they seem to be really nice people. They seem dedicated to helping their workers acclimate to life in America, and the way they navigated through the challenges of the pandemic were both admirable and innovative.
I think a problem with this book is that Rachel Slade seems to view factory work with rose-colored glasses. It’s interesting that she spends a lot of time talking about how factories benefited communities but then almost always follows it up with a story where a company exploited its workers and sometimes even killed them in their unsafe factories.
I appreciate the honesty, and I think an attempt was made by Slade to provide a balanced outlook on factory work, BUT Slade seems so hellbent on fighting for manufacturing to return to the States that she’s willing to overlook the fact that large companies seem to always find ways to exploit their workers.
But I’m glad she found the Waxmans in her quest to find the one clothing company that is 100% made in America. However, I don’t really think their story will persuade anyone to create their own 100% made in America company.
And that’s another issue with this book. It doesn’t really provide what I believe to be a realistic solution to this problem.
Slade seems to believe that we should just all turn back time and take things back to the way they used to be. And maybe it’s pessimistic of me, but I think we are too far gone at this point.
While I think there may be paths forward for other industries, I just don’t see people NOT buying their clothes from places like Shein or even Amazon. People know these clothes are shitty quality that are made in sweatshops that exploit workers and yet they keep buying them because they are cheap and convenient to order from.
Slade alludes that the consumers need to be a huge driving force in bringing about this change, and maybe I’m just really pessimistic but I don’t see this happening anytime soon. The issue is unfortunately more complicated than Slade may want to admit.
I was glad I read this book in the sense of learning more about the history of American manufacturing and the plight of one modern-day company, but overall I just had too many question marks about where we are headed with this and what the future of these industries might look like.
Well, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I picked up Making It in America: The Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the USA. And after finishing it, I’m not really sure what to think of it either.
SYNOPSIS: Um, it’s really difficult to manufacture anything in America these days.
So, Making It in America is focused on a lot of different things. On one hand, it details the history of manufacturing in America and the creation of NAFTA and the move to offshore our manufacturing to other countries that can do it faster and cheaper.
On a much bigger other hand, it details the work of the Waxmans as they build a company that sources only American resources to make 100% made in America hoodies. Their company has had A LOT of ups and downs, stemming from the basic challenge of finding the materials they need while also dealing with unforeseen challenges such as the Covid pandemic.
Their company consists of primarily immigrant workers and operates out of Maine.
I actually really found the plight of the Waxmans to be interesting, and they seem to be really nice people. They seem dedicated to helping their workers acclimate to life in America, and the way they navigated through the challenges of the pandemic were both admirable and innovative.
I think a problem with this book is that Rachel Slade seems to view factory work with rose-colored glasses. It’s interesting that she spends a lot of time talking about how factories benefited communities but then almost always follows it up with a story where a company exploited its workers and sometimes even killed them in their unsafe factories.
I appreciate the honesty, and I think an attempt was made by Slade to provide a balanced outlook on factory work, BUT Slade seems so hellbent on fighting for manufacturing to return to the States that she’s willing to overlook the fact that large companies seem to always find ways to exploit their workers.
But I’m glad she found the Waxmans in her quest to find the one clothing company that is 100% made in America. However, I don’t really think their story will persuade anyone to create their own 100% made in America company.
And that’s another issue with this book. It doesn’t really provide what I believe to be a realistic solution to this problem.
Slade seems to believe that we should just all turn back time and take things back to the way they used to be. And maybe it’s pessimistic of me, but I think we are too far gone at this point.
While I think there may be paths forward for other industries, I just don’t see people NOT buying their clothes from places like Shein or even Amazon. People know these clothes are shitty quality that are made in sweatshops that exploit workers and yet they keep buying them because they are cheap and convenient to order from.
Slade alludes that the consumers need to be a huge driving force in bringing about this change, and maybe I’m just really pessimistic but I don’t see this happening anytime soon. The issue is unfortunately more complicated than Slade may want to admit.
I was glad I read this book in the sense of learning more about the history of American manufacturing and the plight of one modern-day company, but overall I just had too many question marks about where we are headed with this and what the future of these industries might look like.
March 10, 2024
As a very proud union educator and the wife of a very committed Teamsters union steward, I was SO into all of the content about the labor movement and unions in this book. I loved that focus, and am so grateful that companies like American Roots exist.
With that being said, this book definitely wasn't perfect on a mechanical / editorial level, but my passion for the content let me overlook the unnecessary content (why a history of Route 66?) and the over-injection of the author's feelings into the narrative. I can't recommend this book without the caveat that the reader will have to wade through that to get to the meat of it.
I did love learning more (through the author's very biased lens) about the history of the free trade movement in the United States and how so much of our manufacturing ended up getting offshored, and was actually surprised to learn how wrong I was about the origins of this movement. In present day rural Wisconsin, the focus on "Made in America" tends to lean toward right-wing Trump supporters and I was stunned to realize what a progressive movement this actually is. I obviously need to do a LOT more reading, and am pretty embarrassed to find out just how wrong I was, even about a movement (labor) that I thought I knew a lot about.
American Roots' story is inspiring, but also daunting and a cautionary tale of how almost impossible it is to manufacture in America with only an American-made supply chain. What will they do when their ONE American zipper factory goes out of business? And also, what about all of the American manufacturing shops that aren’t unionized? Should that be a priority before trying to create more of these jobs?
I loved AR’s devotion to hiring immigrants and the progressive nature of their entire business model, and so desperately want their business to survive. Here's hoping........
Also, the NYT review does such a better job than I do of summing up why just making things in America might not be the full answer to our problems ~ read it!
Source: public library hardcover
With that being said, this book definitely wasn't perfect on a mechanical / editorial level, but my passion for the content let me overlook the unnecessary content (why a history of Route 66?) and the over-injection of the author's feelings into the narrative. I can't recommend this book without the caveat that the reader will have to wade through that to get to the meat of it.
I did love learning more (through the author's very biased lens) about the history of the free trade movement in the United States and how so much of our manufacturing ended up getting offshored, and was actually surprised to learn how wrong I was about the origins of this movement. In present day rural Wisconsin, the focus on "Made in America" tends to lean toward right-wing Trump supporters and I was stunned to realize what a progressive movement this actually is. I obviously need to do a LOT more reading, and am pretty embarrassed to find out just how wrong I was, even about a movement (labor) that I thought I knew a lot about.
American Roots' story is inspiring, but also daunting and a cautionary tale of how almost impossible it is to manufacture in America with only an American-made supply chain. What will they do when their ONE American zipper factory goes out of business? And also, what about all of the American manufacturing shops that aren’t unionized? Should that be a priority before trying to create more of these jobs?
I loved AR’s devotion to hiring immigrants and the progressive nature of their entire business model, and so desperately want their business to survive. Here's hoping........
Also, the NYT review does such a better job than I do of summing up why just making things in America might not be the full answer to our problems ~ read it!
Source: public library hardcover
May 28, 2024
A big surprise when I went to look at the reviews of this book -- I liked the book more than the other reviewers. I was expecting a response akin to "My Fourth Time, We Drowned" where the men drool over the sexy picture of the author and fall all over themselves to agree that we need to do more for the poor downtrodden migrants who are being needlessly tortured by the coyotes and then by the European community returning them to Libyan shores.
All I can figure is that the author is not young enough, the picture not quite sexy enough or perhaps the author a bit smarter than the male readers want.
Nevertheless, this book is a readable account of how America lost its manufacturing base as its corporate leaders repeatedly shot the country in the foot, in the heart, in the brain, etc, as they manipulated the rules, the laws to get an increasing amount of the riches of the world. All so the Jeff Bezos's of the world can build a $400 million sailboat with a masthead of a rather plain Lauren Sanchez (at least that is a bit romantic, I guess). It's a heartbreakingly evil story which requires a hero/heroine which the author provides in the form of Ben and Whitney Waxman. In this account, Ben seems to spend his time running on stage crying "I know how to save the world," and "We're working so, so hard so our people (employees) can have a better life!" He seems a bit hapless.
The author has put together a huge amount of history and information as she recounts the story of America's mighty manufacturing background and all the steps we took to send it to other places in the world which we seemed to believe that we could control through our multinational corporations. There is no doubting the author's abilities as she throws all these balls in the air but in the end I have to wonder whether any of it will work just because of the sheer size of the problem
All would have worked better for me if she hadn't been so liberal and dissed half of the country in the mode of Katie Couric. It's hard to support the little people while denigrating an entire section of them for their idiotic beliefs. The author didn't seem to be able to get past her own programming. A pity, could have been a really good book.
All I can figure is that the author is not young enough, the picture not quite sexy enough or perhaps the author a bit smarter than the male readers want.
Nevertheless, this book is a readable account of how America lost its manufacturing base as its corporate leaders repeatedly shot the country in the foot, in the heart, in the brain, etc, as they manipulated the rules, the laws to get an increasing amount of the riches of the world. All so the Jeff Bezos's of the world can build a $400 million sailboat with a masthead of a rather plain Lauren Sanchez (at least that is a bit romantic, I guess). It's a heartbreakingly evil story which requires a hero/heroine which the author provides in the form of Ben and Whitney Waxman. In this account, Ben seems to spend his time running on stage crying "I know how to save the world," and "We're working so, so hard so our people (employees) can have a better life!" He seems a bit hapless.
The author has put together a huge amount of history and information as she recounts the story of America's mighty manufacturing background and all the steps we took to send it to other places in the world which we seemed to believe that we could control through our multinational corporations. There is no doubting the author's abilities as she throws all these balls in the air but in the end I have to wonder whether any of it will work just because of the sheer size of the problem
All would have worked better for me if she hadn't been so liberal and dissed half of the country in the mode of Katie Couric. It's hard to support the little people while denigrating an entire section of them for their idiotic beliefs. The author didn't seem to be able to get past her own programming. A pity, could have been a really good book.
February 21, 2024
I took my time reading this book because I wanted to savor it more and more as I read it. This was so incredibly powerful and inspiring.
The first 100 or so pages set the scene of manufacturing in America. This was the most important part because our memories are so short and younger generations know nothing of a time before fast fashion and Amazon. In 1960s 98% of clothing bought in America was made in America. Just a few decades later 2% of all clothing bought in America is made in America.
Slade weaves a truly devastating tapestry of our decline in this sector, yet masterfully gives us hope surrounding, of all things, a hoodie.
What is more American than a hoodie? American is the story of ordinary people coming together to build a better world. This book tells the story of a Company called American Roots and a family that wants to bring back American Manufacturing of something so simple as, a hoodie. The company endures incredible obstacles including sourcing, staffing, and a global pandemic.
I will never stop recommending this book because the information is something to essential to our daily lives. And as consumers of clothing, we human beings 100%, have the ability to turn the tide of global warming, economic growth, and general happiness simply by THINKING about who makes our clothing and how we can be apart of a better world.
The first 100 or so pages set the scene of manufacturing in America. This was the most important part because our memories are so short and younger generations know nothing of a time before fast fashion and Amazon. In 1960s 98% of clothing bought in America was made in America. Just a few decades later 2% of all clothing bought in America is made in America.
Slade weaves a truly devastating tapestry of our decline in this sector, yet masterfully gives us hope surrounding, of all things, a hoodie.
What is more American than a hoodie? American is the story of ordinary people coming together to build a better world. This book tells the story of a Company called American Roots and a family that wants to bring back American Manufacturing of something so simple as, a hoodie. The company endures incredible obstacles including sourcing, staffing, and a global pandemic.
I will never stop recommending this book because the information is something to essential to our daily lives. And as consumers of clothing, we human beings 100%, have the ability to turn the tide of global warming, economic growth, and general happiness simply by THINKING about who makes our clothing and how we can be apart of a better world.
May 31, 2024
I loved this book. Interspersed personal stories along with the history of the labour movement and Free Trade. My only criticism is the feeling that the author is somehow selling American Roots. I understand she is trying to show how difficult it is to make a product in America and pay fair wages but sometimes it felt a little too much love for Ben and Whitney. Although I admit I have fallen for them and want a hoodie.
Not sure my I can't see my highlights but this is one of them..."During one of these tours, the Taiwanese businessman confessed that he was confounded by Americans. He’s worked with buyers from all over the world, including Europeans, Asians, Middle Easterners, but he said he that the American’s greed was beyond anything he’d ever seen,
Fearing copycats, foreign buyers from other countries tend to give foreign manufacturers just enough information to make parts of things. But the Americans had no such fears. The Chinese fabricator marveled at the American’s willingness to sell out each other and freely give away their own corporate secrets. In just a few years, he said he’d watched as Americans exported entire industries to Asia. Gutting their domestic workforce, destroying their own tax base, and exposing their products to knockoffs or the black market. He'd never met people so hungry for profit that they were willing to export everything—not just their labor but all their manufacturing knowledge—to reap bigger profits."
Not sure my I can't see my highlights but this is one of them..."During one of these tours, the Taiwanese businessman confessed that he was confounded by Americans. He’s worked with buyers from all over the world, including Europeans, Asians, Middle Easterners, but he said he that the American’s greed was beyond anything he’d ever seen,
Fearing copycats, foreign buyers from other countries tend to give foreign manufacturers just enough information to make parts of things. But the Americans had no such fears. The Chinese fabricator marveled at the American’s willingness to sell out each other and freely give away their own corporate secrets. In just a few years, he said he’d watched as Americans exported entire industries to Asia. Gutting their domestic workforce, destroying their own tax base, and exposing their products to knockoffs or the black market. He'd never met people so hungry for profit that they were willing to export everything—not just their labor but all their manufacturing knowledge—to reap bigger profits."
February 26, 2024
I grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. On my bookshelf sits a heavy volume called The Kalamazoo Automobilist, which describes the thrilling history of automobile manufacturing in my hometown. I grew up surrounded by automotive lore, and my wife still manages a serviceable "Oh neat" whenever we watch an old movie and I start pointing at a taxi and shouting "That's a Checker Cab from Kalamazoo!!!" I grew up when people talked about the auto industry having employed our grandpas, but I didn't think anything of the fact that none of my friends' parents worked with cars. The Kalamazoo Automobilist ends in 1991, when I was five years old. An updated version would be a catalog of offshoring, financial engineering, and failure, with our GM plant being shuttered in 1999, Checker Motors limping along before closing for good in 2010, and other tales of woe.
What does this have to do with a book about a clothing company in Maine? It's a long way of saying that I am the ideal target audience for a book about the importance of American manufacturing. I wanted to love this book. I wanted to read it and have my faith restored, like a wayward son attending a Pentecostal revival. Instead of bringing me back into the fold with a dose of old religion, Rachel Slade accidentally details all the reasons an American renaissance is unlikely and, even if it does happen, is far from the cure-all she suggests it would be.
The owners she lauds throughout the book come off as reinventing employer paternalism more than rediscovering the formula for a successful business. The company struggles to find demand, it struggles when COVID-19 disrupts life, and it even struggles once it starts to find demand for its signature $100+ hoodies. For proof of that last point, you need go no farther than the company's website, which currently has this banner across its home page: "We are SOLD OUT of our retail inventory. Thank you for your support!"
I want the United States to have a stronger manufacturing base. I agree with Slade's claims that private equity and federal policies have conspired to rob our country of its manufacturing jobs. The assault on our manufacturing sector has made industries as diverse as national defense and healthcare unnecessarily brittle and at the whims of complex supply chains, with serious consequences for workers and the environment. But I've heard too many politicians, union leaders, and others telling me that all America needs to end inequality and lead to a second Era of Good Feelings is a few more factories. Slade tries to make this case. In reality, our problems won't be addressed by having more companies hiring American.
While American Roots stirs the conversation around the revival of American manufacturing, it falls short in offering a convincing roadmap for this resurgence. The book, steeped in nostalgia, overlooks the nuanced realities of today's global economy and the complex challenges facing the U.S. manufacturing sector. Despite this, Slade’s passion for the subject and the depth of her research are evident and provide a stimulating, if idealized, perspective on American industry.
Coming from the so-called "Rust Belt," I understand the yearning for a return to a time when high school graduates could count on getting a job at a local factory and being able to support a family. However, as Slade’s narrative inadvertently suggests, the path to revitalizing American manufacturing is not as straightforward as resurrecting the factories of yesteryear.
What does this have to do with a book about a clothing company in Maine? It's a long way of saying that I am the ideal target audience for a book about the importance of American manufacturing. I wanted to love this book. I wanted to read it and have my faith restored, like a wayward son attending a Pentecostal revival. Instead of bringing me back into the fold with a dose of old religion, Rachel Slade accidentally details all the reasons an American renaissance is unlikely and, even if it does happen, is far from the cure-all she suggests it would be.
The owners she lauds throughout the book come off as reinventing employer paternalism more than rediscovering the formula for a successful business. The company struggles to find demand, it struggles when COVID-19 disrupts life, and it even struggles once it starts to find demand for its signature $100+ hoodies. For proof of that last point, you need go no farther than the company's website, which currently has this banner across its home page: "We are SOLD OUT of our retail inventory. Thank you for your support!"
I want the United States to have a stronger manufacturing base. I agree with Slade's claims that private equity and federal policies have conspired to rob our country of its manufacturing jobs. The assault on our manufacturing sector has made industries as diverse as national defense and healthcare unnecessarily brittle and at the whims of complex supply chains, with serious consequences for workers and the environment. But I've heard too many politicians, union leaders, and others telling me that all America needs to end inequality and lead to a second Era of Good Feelings is a few more factories. Slade tries to make this case. In reality, our problems won't be addressed by having more companies hiring American.
While American Roots stirs the conversation around the revival of American manufacturing, it falls short in offering a convincing roadmap for this resurgence. The book, steeped in nostalgia, overlooks the nuanced realities of today's global economy and the complex challenges facing the U.S. manufacturing sector. Despite this, Slade’s passion for the subject and the depth of her research are evident and provide a stimulating, if idealized, perspective on American industry.
Coming from the so-called "Rust Belt," I understand the yearning for a return to a time when high school graduates could count on getting a job at a local factory and being able to support a family. However, as Slade’s narrative inadvertently suggests, the path to revitalizing American manufacturing is not as straightforward as resurrecting the factories of yesteryear.
April 15, 2024
A popular book in certain circles when I lived in Michigan in the 70s was Steve Babson's What's Happening to Our Jobs?, illustrated, often hilariously, by Nancy Brigham. Slade's is a longer, updated version, using the story of the company American Roots to depict the sea change in American manufacturing. I imagine some won't like the digressions but they are necessary, particularly for the under 40s, since the history she tells is seldom heard in the mainstream - ironically, even though nearly all of us have lived it. It's told in a reporter's style, with catchy language that won't get the reader bogged down though. She uses the word "futzing", the phrase "get a load of this" and characterizations like this one: "a pill-popping right-wing conspiracy theorist named Rush Limbaugh". I also liked her footnote in French, as if she hoped President Macron would read it. We have had seamstresses in the family so I loved the details about large scale manufacturing of clothing.
September 18, 2024
This book was frustrating. It's about the effort to make something in the US, and the history that means it's an uphill battle that has destroyed industries from top to bottom. In this case the example is a hoodie, and the processes in making it from cotton fiber to the finished garment.
I'm a progressive and a strong advocate for labor unions. And yet, the narrative made me unsatisfied, because it's set out in such a black and white way. In this world, American manufacturing was destroyed by free trade agreements and the greed of business owners leading to a spiral to the bottom. That's not totally untrue, and like the author, I lament how the solution has been to sell us vast quantities of shoddy products. But in her telling, there's simply been no benefit to free trade, and she advocates for protectionism and tariffs. It also feels somewhat hazy about the past, a little overly romantic.
I'm a progressive and a strong advocate for labor unions. And yet, the narrative made me unsatisfied, because it's set out in such a black and white way. In this world, American manufacturing was destroyed by free trade agreements and the greed of business owners leading to a spiral to the bottom. That's not totally untrue, and like the author, I lament how the solution has been to sell us vast quantities of shoddy products. But in her telling, there's simply been no benefit to free trade, and she advocates for protectionism and tariffs. It also feels somewhat hazy about the past, a little overly romantic.
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December 22, 2024I really enjoyed this book. As someone who majored in apparel merchandising and supply chain, this is right up my alley of interest. It gave a lot of insight in history while also maintaining a readable storyline.
The reviews stating it's too political...I would imagine these are coming from the people who say we need to buy American and then give all their money to Jeff Bezos. Trade is politics. It seems a lot of people want things to be made in America without coming to terms and accepting why they aren't anymore. If you went into a book that was about trade and expected there to be no politics, that's on you lol. And just because you don't agree with the side of politics it's showing doesn't mean that side doesn't have a valid basis.
It was a little concerning at the end that most the core employees had left. As someone who has worked with multiple apparel and US manufacturing/finishing brands, I could surmise some of the unspokens of why that might be.
The reviews stating it's too political...I would imagine these are coming from the people who say we need to buy American and then give all their money to Jeff Bezos. Trade is politics. It seems a lot of people want things to be made in America without coming to terms and accepting why they aren't anymore. If you went into a book that was about trade and expected there to be no politics, that's on you lol. And just because you don't agree with the side of politics it's showing doesn't mean that side doesn't have a valid basis.
It was a little concerning at the end that most the core employees had left. As someone who has worked with multiple apparel and US manufacturing/finishing brands, I could surmise some of the unspokens of why that might be.
May 28, 2025
I was a little nervous entering this read as the conversation around American manufacturing can be a very divisive one that ignores the human cost.
Fortunately, this book is not an overly clean round of applause for some grandiose example, but discusses a company that is working to promote a fair and equitable workplace.
There are so many factors that got us to where we are today with our manufacturing and workforce, and I appreciate that the author took the time to discuss the highs and lows of how it all came to be. This definitely extends beyond the apparel industry. I think one thing that I missed is a more serious mention of just how poorly the grab for profits as companies sent their production out left entire regions of the country.
Overall, if you are learning to learn a little bit more about the real challenges, benefits, and successes behind American manufacturing from a equitable and fair human lens then this is the read for you.
Fortunately, this book is not an overly clean round of applause for some grandiose example, but discusses a company that is working to promote a fair and equitable workplace.
There are so many factors that got us to where we are today with our manufacturing and workforce, and I appreciate that the author took the time to discuss the highs and lows of how it all came to be. This definitely extends beyond the apparel industry. I think one thing that I missed is a more serious mention of just how poorly the grab for profits as companies sent their production out left entire regions of the country.
Overall, if you are learning to learn a little bit more about the real challenges, benefits, and successes behind American manufacturing from a equitable and fair human lens then this is the read for you.
January 30, 2024
I picked up this book because it involved a Maine company and I had heard about what they were trying to accomplish through my son Jonny who knew the owners. It's a very good look at what it takes to manufacture in the United States. American Roots, the compnay that is focused on makes hoodies, largly for unions and progressive groups. It's customer bases is willing to pay more to support product that is 100% American made. Besides focusing on the company Slade, who is a very good writer, takes many side trips to explain where manufacturing in this country has gone; the immigrant experience; how Amazon has changed the country; the union movement and several others that make the book hold together. Well worth the time. But be careful, it may make you think before you order cheaper products made with cheaper labor.
April 25, 2024
78%
this book provides so many great insights into companies that I would have not otherwise had any introspection into what was going on with them and I think that is the coolest thing, however one step forward two steps backwards mentality here, how I've been to explain how the fact that we don't need to be doing lower Revenue generating jobs in America is a good thing, automation is a fantastic thing, bringing back things like mining that are just to create jobs and not actually beneficial, very stupid.
So yeah I can see why manufacturing is a losing Enterprise in American why we Outsource it, either way I'm glad for the insights and the knowledge about these many various companies and the types of Outsourcing they do, and trust me the race to the bottom is one that we actually do want to win. Cheaper products more automation, we can make this place really great for us.
this book provides so many great insights into companies that I would have not otherwise had any introspection into what was going on with them and I think that is the coolest thing, however one step forward two steps backwards mentality here, how I've been to explain how the fact that we don't need to be doing lower Revenue generating jobs in America is a good thing, automation is a fantastic thing, bringing back things like mining that are just to create jobs and not actually beneficial, very stupid.
So yeah I can see why manufacturing is a losing Enterprise in American why we Outsource it, either way I'm glad for the insights and the knowledge about these many various companies and the types of Outsourcing they do, and trust me the race to the bottom is one that we actually do want to win. Cheaper products more automation, we can make this place really great for us.
July 27, 2024
MAKING IT IN AMERICA is the story of 2 idealistic people who have found each other to love and help create a dream together. They work at creating a factory in Portland Maine. Every step of the way in their story is difficult.
I have just finished reading an opposite story about Jeff Bezos. He too created a business. First he sold books and now he owns an enterprise that sells almost everything. In ways, he is admirable; in other ways, he gobbled too much.
The contrasts between these 2 stories is illuminating. I asked: would Amazon want to carry the hoodies manufactured in Portland? My answer: only if he could buy them wholesale at a great price. What would happen to those 2 idealistic people? They would be gobbled up and become further dispirited by their adventure of manufacturing and distributing in America..
I have just finished reading an opposite story about Jeff Bezos. He too created a business. First he sold books and now he owns an enterprise that sells almost everything. In ways, he is admirable; in other ways, he gobbled too much.
The contrasts between these 2 stories is illuminating. I asked: would Amazon want to carry the hoodies manufactured in Portland? My answer: only if he could buy them wholesale at a great price. What would happen to those 2 idealistic people? They would be gobbled up and become further dispirited by their adventure of manufacturing and distributing in America..
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