Status
Available
Genres
Collection
Publication
New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2014.
Description
Business. Nonfiction. HTML: 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..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Writermala
found this book at the same time Fascinating and Gut-wrenching. Beth Macy has explored the History of the factory town of Bassett Virginia, its progress to becoming the foremost manufacturer of quality furniture and its eventual decline on losing market share to imports.
So, how could this be
I thought I'd be skimming through the book to see how imports jeopardized American manufacture. Instead I read every page and savored the details of John Bassett III's personality and his fight to keep his factories running.
So, how could this be
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interesting? The author tells the story of the Bassett family along with the story of furniture manufacture. The infighting and the family politics is what makes it so.I thought I'd be skimming through the book to see how imports jeopardized American manufacture. Instead I read every page and savored the details of John Bassett III's personality and his fight to keep his factories running.
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LibraryThing member mybucketlistofbooks
One of the most challenging issues facing the United States in the 21st century is how to cope with the consequences of economic globalization. Free trade agreements along with the adoption of free market principles in communist countries such as China and Vietnam have resulted in rapid and
The furniture manufacturing industry that was formed in this area, founded largely by a small cadre of families in the early 20th century, grew and thrived based on an ethic of hard work, innovation, luck, connections and ruthlessness. Macy concentrates her story on the businesses spawned by one family – the Bassetts. Descendants of an old Virginia family, John D. Bassett, Charles Columbus Bassett, Samuel H. Bassett, and Reed L. Stone started Bassett furniture in 1902. From that time until the 1980s Bassett Furniture and the companies spun off from it grew to be the largest furniture manufacturer in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. Bassett,VA, where the company was formed became a company town, with the Bassett family and the Bassett furniture company providing not only jobs but virtually all the other institutions and services required to service its population, including schools, banks, places of worship, and housing. This arrangement helped keep Bassett furniture supplied with steady labor, while at the same time providing its employees with a comfortable level of stability. This arrangement began to crumble however as the balance of trade began to favor formerly closed societies that were implementing capitalist economies.
By the beginning of the 21st century Asian manufacturers found ways to produce furniture of competitive quality with that produced in the United States at a much lower price. Eventually American companies, unable to compete, began importing furniture and furniture parts from these manufacturers, resulting in the rapid closing of their plants in the United States, Bassett Furniture included. For the workers formerly employed at these plants, globalization was beginning to look like the apocalypse as thousands lost their formerly secure jobs. In an economy where the quarterly bottom line was becoming the yardstick by which success was measured, their plight was of little concern. One man, however, tried to buck that trend.
John D. Bassett III had spent his formative years learning the furniture industry working for his family’s company and believed he would one day be its chairman. However, as time went on it became apparent this would not happen. He left the company his family built and eventually took over operation of the much smaller Vaughan-Bassett furniture company in Galax, VA. That company had become moribund, set in its ways, and saw its sales shrink and the quality of its offerings decline. John D. Bassett III turned the company around, instituting a hard charging attitude that saw the company adopt among other things an express service that provided a service that retailers who relied on imported Asian furniture could not compete with, rapid delivery of orders in less than a week. This allowed these retailers to minimize the inventory they had to keep on hand, thus reducing overhead costs. Despite these innovations however, by the early 2000s Vaughan-Bassett was beginning to slip behind, unable to keep up with the low prices offered by his Asian based competition; prices he believed that were not in line with the cost of their manufacture. Bassett was sure the Chinese were dumping cheap furniture into the American market in order to drive out competition.
In the two decades after the death of Mao tse Tung China became one of the top exporters in the world, eventually surpassing Japan and South Korea as the main trading partner with the United States. In 2001 they became a member of the World Trade Organization, a compact set up to “review and propagate … national trade policies, and to ensure the coherence and transparency of trade policies through surveillance in global economic policy-making.” Among these policies was an agreement not to dump cheap goods subsidized by government funding into foreign markets in order to drive out competing businesses. In 2003 it became apparent to John D. Bassett III that China was dumping cheap furniture into the American market in violation of this obligation. Rather than accept this as the natural result of evolution in the marketplace as many American manufacturers and retailers who were benefiting from these low prices were willing to do, Bassett formed a coalition of manufacturers and successfully fought China, winning a large settlement which he invested in his manufacturing operation, and saving his company and the 700 jobs that went along with it. For this action he is regarded as a hero in his adopted hometown of Galax, VA.
I really did enjoy this book for the most part. The first half or so recounts the genealogy of the Bassett family, their entry into the furniture manufacturing business, and the inevitable conflict that results when a company stays in one family for so long. In many ways the Bassetts were not all that likeable. They could be condescending to their employees, did everything they could to keep unions out of their factories, and in general behaved as you would expect good old boy millionaires from southwest Virginia would act. They were just really full of themselves, a trait I find very unattractive.
The sections of the book that dealt with John D. Bassett III’s fight against the Chinese, and his effort to save his company and the jobs it provided was riveting, and it really gave a human face to the consequences of globalization. Where labor used to be viewed as an asset, it has now simply become another cost center to be trimmed, with little thought given to the effect that trimming would have. As a result we are going through a massive shift in what kinds of jobs workers are trained for, and are reorienting how our economy relates with its trading partners. As John D.Bassett III showed however, manufacturing in the United States can survive as long as it stays nimble, combative, innovative, and has leaders who are unwilling to view its existence solely in terms of its bottom line.
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dramatic changes in the U.S. labor market, generally to the detriment of those at its lowest levels. Beth Macy looks at this challenge by focusing on how one industry centered in southwest Virginia and northern North Carolina coped with these changesThe furniture manufacturing industry that was formed in this area, founded largely by a small cadre of families in the early 20th century, grew and thrived based on an ethic of hard work, innovation, luck, connections and ruthlessness. Macy concentrates her story on the businesses spawned by one family – the Bassetts. Descendants of an old Virginia family, John D. Bassett, Charles Columbus Bassett, Samuel H. Bassett, and Reed L. Stone started Bassett furniture in 1902. From that time until the 1980s Bassett Furniture and the companies spun off from it grew to be the largest furniture manufacturer in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. Bassett,VA, where the company was formed became a company town, with the Bassett family and the Bassett furniture company providing not only jobs but virtually all the other institutions and services required to service its population, including schools, banks, places of worship, and housing. This arrangement helped keep Bassett furniture supplied with steady labor, while at the same time providing its employees with a comfortable level of stability. This arrangement began to crumble however as the balance of trade began to favor formerly closed societies that were implementing capitalist economies.
By the beginning of the 21st century Asian manufacturers found ways to produce furniture of competitive quality with that produced in the United States at a much lower price. Eventually American companies, unable to compete, began importing furniture and furniture parts from these manufacturers, resulting in the rapid closing of their plants in the United States, Bassett Furniture included. For the workers formerly employed at these plants, globalization was beginning to look like the apocalypse as thousands lost their formerly secure jobs. In an economy where the quarterly bottom line was becoming the yardstick by which success was measured, their plight was of little concern. One man, however, tried to buck that trend.
John D. Bassett III had spent his formative years learning the furniture industry working for his family’s company and believed he would one day be its chairman. However, as time went on it became apparent this would not happen. He left the company his family built and eventually took over operation of the much smaller Vaughan-Bassett furniture company in Galax, VA. That company had become moribund, set in its ways, and saw its sales shrink and the quality of its offerings decline. John D. Bassett III turned the company around, instituting a hard charging attitude that saw the company adopt among other things an express service that provided a service that retailers who relied on imported Asian furniture could not compete with, rapid delivery of orders in less than a week. This allowed these retailers to minimize the inventory they had to keep on hand, thus reducing overhead costs. Despite these innovations however, by the early 2000s Vaughan-Bassett was beginning to slip behind, unable to keep up with the low prices offered by his Asian based competition; prices he believed that were not in line with the cost of their manufacture. Bassett was sure the Chinese were dumping cheap furniture into the American market in order to drive out competition.
In the two decades after the death of Mao tse Tung China became one of the top exporters in the world, eventually surpassing Japan and South Korea as the main trading partner with the United States. In 2001 they became a member of the World Trade Organization, a compact set up to “review and propagate … national trade policies, and to ensure the coherence and transparency of trade policies through surveillance in global economic policy-making.” Among these policies was an agreement not to dump cheap goods subsidized by government funding into foreign markets in order to drive out competing businesses. In 2003 it became apparent to John D. Bassett III that China was dumping cheap furniture into the American market in violation of this obligation. Rather than accept this as the natural result of evolution in the marketplace as many American manufacturers and retailers who were benefiting from these low prices were willing to do, Bassett formed a coalition of manufacturers and successfully fought China, winning a large settlement which he invested in his manufacturing operation, and saving his company and the 700 jobs that went along with it. For this action he is regarded as a hero in his adopted hometown of Galax, VA.
I really did enjoy this book for the most part. The first half or so recounts the genealogy of the Bassett family, their entry into the furniture manufacturing business, and the inevitable conflict that results when a company stays in one family for so long. In many ways the Bassetts were not all that likeable. They could be condescending to their employees, did everything they could to keep unions out of their factories, and in general behaved as you would expect good old boy millionaires from southwest Virginia would act. They were just really full of themselves, a trait I find very unattractive.
The sections of the book that dealt with John D. Bassett III’s fight against the Chinese, and his effort to save his company and the jobs it provided was riveting, and it really gave a human face to the consequences of globalization. Where labor used to be viewed as an asset, it has now simply become another cost center to be trimmed, with little thought given to the effect that trimming would have. As a result we are going through a massive shift in what kinds of jobs workers are trained for, and are reorienting how our economy relates with its trading partners. As John D.Bassett III showed however, manufacturing in the United States can survive as long as it stays nimble, combative, innovative, and has leaders who are unwilling to view its existence solely in terms of its bottom line.
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LibraryThing member SABC
FACTORY MAN is about John Bassett III, his family and his struggles to keep Vaughn-Bassett Furniture Company from going overseas as the other local furniture companies had in the 1980' and 90's. It reflects on the hard, tough times from Grandfather Bassett's era in 1902 to the present time
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including legal conflicts with Congress. Very reader friendly...... Show Less
LibraryThing member GypsyJon
Very interesting book. The history of the Bassett family and the furniture industry in North Carolina.
The author reviews a complicated family tree, which includes out of wedlock children of maids etc. She discusses the impact of NAFTA, WTO and globalization on a once large US industry that has
Finally she spends time discussing John Bassett III who lobbied the US government to provide protection from furniture dumping by Chinese manufacturers. He was clearly a feisty man who genuinely cared about his employees at Vaughn Bassett a company he started after being run out of his families company by a brother in law. It is one of the few furniture manufacturing companies left in North Carolina and Virginia that actually manufacture furniture in this country.
Very interesting, but complicated book about a family and a man who once were the dominant furniture makers in the world.
The author reviews a complicated family tree, which includes out of wedlock children of maids etc. She discusses the impact of NAFTA, WTO and globalization on a once large US industry that has
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been pretty much destroyed by cheap labor in the far east. She describes the plight of many family who once had middle class jobs that gave them the ability to provide for their families.Finally she spends time discussing John Bassett III who lobbied the US government to provide protection from furniture dumping by Chinese manufacturers. He was clearly a feisty man who genuinely cared about his employees at Vaughn Bassett a company he started after being run out of his families company by a brother in law. It is one of the few furniture manufacturing companies left in North Carolina and Virginia that actually manufacture furniture in this country.
Very interesting, but complicated book about a family and a man who once were the dominant furniture makers in the world.
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LibraryThing member bradleybunch
Very engaging book covering the effects of globalization and free trade from a variety of perspectives: business, political, social, regional, and personal. The temptations to cheat in a global economy seem to be overwhelming, and the cost of oversight seems to be too high. Throw into the mix a
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combustible stew of racial and caste issues of the post-Reconstruction South, and you've got a book hitting on more cylinders than you thought it had. Show Less
LibraryThing member lycomayflower
If I did my ratings based on some sort of objective evaluation of the quality of a book, this would probably be a four-plus-star read, but I rate based on my reading experience and this just utterly failed to float my canoe. The book does what it says on the tin, giving a history of the Bassett
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family and their furniture business, providing a biography of John Bassett III, and outlining how he kept the business going as Americans increasingly bought cheaper furniture made in Asia. I probably would have been all about a twenty-page magazine article on this subject, but 400+ pages deadened any interest I had in it. Beth Macy writes well and gives the facts a decent narrative thrust, but I just couldn't get stuck in. Even the fact that most of the important stuff in the book happened within one hundred miles of where I'm sitting didn't help. I ended up skimming. Even so, recommended to people who like biography and nonfiction about business and/or economics. Show Less
LibraryThing member Iambookish
I really enjoyed this book a lot! Even though the title suggests that the story is going to center around Bassett furniture descendant John Bassett III and his efforts to save his furniture factory from closure due to Asian imports, its extensive tale of the Bassett family and the history of their
Beth Macy does an amazing job of reporting this intricate story. Her thorough research covers all the angles, and she has the impressive writing skills to pull off a highly entertaining book, one that easily could have been dry and boring.
It's made me want to be more conscious of buying American made products whenever possible, although granted that's a hard thing to do these days. I tell you one thing it made me do though, go online and look at the Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Company website and look at the beautiful made in America furniture!!
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furniture empire is what interested me the most. Fascinating! Beth Macy does an amazing job of reporting this intricate story. Her thorough research covers all the angles, and she has the impressive writing skills to pull off a highly entertaining book, one that easily could have been dry and boring.
It's made me want to be more conscious of buying American made products whenever possible, although granted that's a hard thing to do these days. I tell you one thing it made me do though, go online and look at the Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Company website and look at the beautiful made in America furniture!!
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LibraryThing member reader1009
nonfiction; American businessman takes on China. (stopped at part ii, p.69) I liked it ok, but it was pretty thorough/not as quick a read as I would've liked. If I had more time, maybe...
LibraryThing member froxgirl
An in-depth look at the almost impossible mission of the Bassett family and their in-law rivals to save a tiny slice of American manufacturing: the North Carolina-based furniture factory. These benevolent overlords employed white and Black workers at their company town facilities (albeit with lower
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wages and more menial jobs for Black workers). Much is made of the rivalry between heirs JD (Jim) Bassett III and his brother-in-law Bob Spilman, perhaps too much. There is some commentary from actual workers in the plants, especially after so many were shut down due to off-shoring to China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The chapters on the actual fight to keep Bassett alive once Bill Clinton and congress brought NAFTA and its "giant sucking sound" of American jobs disappearing to fruition is portrayed as a noble one, with Jim Bassett never wanting to surrender, both for the livelihoods of his neighbors and for family tradition and pride. Has there ever been a comprehensive lookback at the impact of globalization on the working and middle class of this country and of the countries that directly benefitted, creating a higher standard of living for the world and a lower one for most Americans? Now, more then 50 years since, we can look at AI and ChatGPT as movers of yet another tsunami of worker displacement, this time led by Americans. The book is very thorough in showing how small towns dependent on one industry are no longer viable, thus the fleeing from dying rural locales. My criticism is that it's way too long and focuses too much on the Bassett personalities. Show Less
Awards
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist — Nonfiction — 2015)
Southern Book Prize (Winner — Nonfiction — 2015)
Virginia Literary Awards (Winner — 2015)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2014)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction — 2014)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction — 2014)
Christian Science Monitor Best Book (Nonfiction — 2014)
Notable Books List (2015)