The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade Reviews

• Interesting, important, broad in scope, full of technical and historic detail

  
  By A2000DWMMYNIYB on 2006-03-07
  Spurred by a Georgetown student anti-sweatshop protest, Pietra Rivoli took up the task of tracing the life of a (tacky souvenir) t-shirt she buys in Florida, to examine the economics and politics of this non-trivial segment of the apparel industry. Why she buys the t-shirt in the first place remains a mystery. Why she needs one from Florida that she will likely discard is even more of a mystery. She made me think about studying the American practice of souvenir shopping and excess consumption. But her t-shirt has a story worth telling.
  
  Rivoli first adeptly traces the history of cotton as a critical world commodity, including the struggles in England two hundred fifty years ago by the wool industry to combat the comfort of cotton, going so far as to prohibit the use of calico and the requirement that people be buried in wool. The questionable economics of slavery moved cotton production to the United States, but it was and still is the intervention of technology, research and financial capital that made cotton farming so much more productive today. Nonetheless, the ability of Texas farmers to market "low quality" cotton can best be attributed to both technology and federal price supports, up to 19 cents on a 59 cent pound of cotton. Cotton, while still a major commodity in global trade, has probably declined in relative value and share of the world economy. What we may be seeing is more of the slow death of the importance a dated commodity and less of a "race to the bottom" that she suggests.
  
  She then takes us to t-shirt and apparel manufacturing and employment, now on the wane in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. People mistakenly think that these jobs are being sent to China. They're not. In fact, they're just disappearing. Rivoli notes that China, between 1995 and 2003, lost ten times the numbers of textiles manufacturing jobs as did the United States (p. 142), and Chinese workers have little or no safety net or alternative employment, unlike their displaced American brethren. In the ill-fated "race to the bottom," it should be clear that this fate seems to await any industry that is unable to maintain a long-term competitive advantage, and the only way to do that seems to be through protectionism. While t-shirts are cheap, saving textile jobs is not cheap. Saving American textile jobs costs between $135,000 and $180,000 per job saved, according to best estimates (p. 144), costing American taxpayers and consumers billions of dollars. Where jobs are being created is in the lobbying and trade association industry. This section (Part III) is an overwhelming alphabet-soup of acronyms - WTO, AGOA, NAFTA, CBTPA, ADTPA, ATC, MFA, ACMI, LTA, ATMI, and ITCB -- for trade agreements, trade associations, trade and lobbying groups, and other defenders of (primarily) protectionism. The complexity of the letters is exceeded by the complexity of the trade agreements they promulgate. It takes a lot of honest, well-intentioned effort and dollars to disrupt the free flow of trade.
  
  As noted above, Rivoli generally passes over the details of the American retail trade for apparel, other than minimal attention to the hated global icon Wal-mart. She observes the expensive foreign vehicles and SUVs in the American shopping mall parking lot, lined up to drop off used clothing at the Salvation Army van in anticipation of going inside and buying up more equally recyclable apparel. I doubt that those malls contain a Wal-mart, and that there is likely a big difference between those who shop at Wal-mart and those who re-cycle clothes before shopping at Lord & Taylor.
  
  This recycled donation sets the stage for the best example of free trade in the book - the used clothing stalls in Tanzania, where savvy shoppers brand shop at rock bottom prices, haggling and playing the market from dawn to dusk. Discriminating, well-informed, fashion-conscious shoppers happily haggle, engaged in one of Tanzania's functioning markets. She is careful not to buy the `humiliation' argument, the one that says that Africans should be ashamed to wear second-hand clothes. As she notes, some of the used stuff dropped off at the American mall never makes it to Africa; it gets picked off along the way as "vintage clothing" and worn by Americans and Japanese willing to pay "hundreds of dollars" for used jeans. As she notes, while much has remained the same in impoverished Africa, most Africans do dress better today, thanks to this free market.
  
  She offers a short conclusion (pp. 211-215) and analysis. She does see some hope: "Cutting agricultural subsidies, democratization, and giving poor countries a place at the table at trade negotiations are all steps in the right direction." She notes Cordell Hull's view, that global commerce may be the best prevention for war.
  
  The book is relatively short (215 pages), well-written, engaging, and, despite the need to use acronyms, very clear and readable. It is an excellent primer on the problems of protectionism and the intricacies of delivering on truly free trade, while noting that many who espouse free trade really don't want to practice it or, more commonly, be subjected to the competition from free trade.
  
  Three minor quibbles.
  
  She writes deferentially about Tom Friedman, his lions and gazelles metaphors, hardware and software analogies, but forgets that he also says that the world is flat. This book shows that the world markets for t-shirts is not free, fair or flat. And the playing field is not level. It is full of lumps, dips, and massive mountains. And, as Rivoli notes, it was not made or kept this way other than by "snarling dogs", not lions, not gazelles. Friedman has popularized interest in globalization but he has shed little light on its understanding or analysis.
  
  With two or three almost casual asides, she seems intent on laying this travesty of fair or free markets at the feet of George Bush, if only because west Texas cotton farmers are such beneficiaries of federal subsidies. A fairer view would recognize that people of the same political and social demeanor who now fight against globalization once fought --- and still do fight -- for crop price protection for farmers.
  
  Rivoli claims that economists everywhere around the globe appear to have universally adopted, recommended and embraced free trade ("virtually unanimous support among professional economists, a group almost without exception who scorn protectionism in general" p. 148). I am not willing to go that far. But you should go so far as to read this good book.
  
  

• For the classroom - more than you think

  
  By A3J3DB8P36B73L on 2006-05-31
  Enough reviews lauding the author and this book have been written, and all of them well-deserved. But since it becomes available in paperback this June (2006), this review hopes to spark a wider discussion of how it might be used in the classroom.
  
  The summary is well known. Prompted by anti-globalization protests on her Georgetown campus, an economics professor travels the world to discover the life of a t-shirt, from West Texas cotton (and a brief history of U.S. cotton and labor policies) to Chinese manufacturing to U.S. trade policy (including "perverse effects and unintended consequences") and finally to the used-clothing market in Africa. Neither paladin nor myrmidon of the usual ideologues, the author uses "story-telling" rather than strict quantitative analysis or theoretical modeling.
  
  Applications for courses in foreign policy, political economy, public policy and the like are obvious. For undergraduates or new graduate students, it might be a good way to introduce a wide variety of concepts at the beginning of a course, or as concluding work, to see how the semester's concepts work together (and at odds).
  
  But it should also not be overlooked for use in courses such as business ethics, or simply "ethics". It has plenty for courses like "science and society." It also might contribute to courses interested in race, class or gender issues, although the answers and implications can be more mixed than some partisans might prefer. (For example, the author's pro-free-trade bias is challenged, but so too are notions that "exploited" tells the entire story of women in low-paying manufacturing jobs.)
  
  Our college is using the book as its "summer reading" for all incoming first-year students, with a series of events during orientation and the fall semester. Some of the questions I would like to see raised include considering "Commercial success can be achieved through moral failure" (p. 14), "Global capitalism and labor activism are not enemies, but are instead cooperators, however unwitting, in improving the human condition" (p. 102), the role of technological advances in shaping social and cultural changes, and questions about political activism, social justice, etc. Other faculty members are working on different questions that are interesting and important, on the substance of the book, but also on broader concepts applicable to life as a new college student.
  
  My own bias is that this kind of book, and this book in particular, is a very student-friendly addition to a wide range of courses usually full of dryer tomes. If you're looking for something different than The Lexus and the Olive Tree and The World is Flat, this might be for you.
  
  
  

• Globalization Demystified

  
  By A25JRKUMBDARYN on 2005-07-25
  All of us have an opinion on globalization. We either fall into the protectionist or free trade camp or perhaps somewhere between but few of us have a clear concept of the mechanics of globalization. Alan Tonselson’s book “The Race to the Bottom” tried explaining it using wry statistical economic analysis but Rivoli breathes life into globalization by fleshing out the people involved in the life cycle of an ordinary T-shirt. Her book illustrates this phenomenon to the layperson by demonstrating that globalization is more about history and, more importantly, politics, than about economics.
  
  Her detailed discussion of textile trade politics leaves me to marvel at the fact that I am in fact wearing a T-shirt at all! Teleologically all political activity is aimed at material gain, hence, we are back to economics or as she so aptly demonstrates that politics gets in the way of economics.
  
  Travels of a T-Shirt is an engrossing, informative, enlightening, and exciting book. The most salient feature is her historical discussion of cotton production and the textile industry. If you thought that globalization is a 21st century phenomena think again. Globalization is as old as the human race. Only its magnitude is unique to our century.
  
  Readers will discover that the issues of globalization are not black and white but rather infinite shades of grey. I urge everyone to read this book for I guarantee that they will walk away with a whole new perspective.
  
  
  

• A Historical Tour of Industry Issues

  
  By A15Z1Q05BRAX4E on 2005-03-22
  I'm from the apparel industry - not fiber, yarn, textile or retail which in the US are separate industries - but apparel, the cutting and sewing and shipping of clothing. Ironically, a week before reading this book, I was given a passionate and amazing talk by an executive from one of the non-apparel companies profiled in this book. When he was done, I told him his business plan, which he detailed, could not have been written by an academic or a consultant, but only by a warrior in the supply chain. Well, this book could not have been written by a warrior, but only by an academic. In its description of the travels of a shirt, it bears close resemblance to a similar story written several years back in the NYTimes magazine. Having said that, this book rocks. Its great. Its a tutorial of how the apparel industry chases the low cost needle from country to country. And it is extremely current. I learned a lot about cotton, yarn, textiles, trade, lobbying, England - but nothing new about apparel, per se. So to me, everyone will learn something new from this book. It is unfortunate the author did not interview Kevin Burke of the American Apparel and Footwear Association. She seems to imply that the AAMA just disappeared. It did not. Kevin is a key player in the "Alphabet Army" the author describes as centered in Washington. Still, as I read the book, I learned the history of one of the members of our organization (www.aapnetwork.net), a highly successful cotton organization called PCCA. And I saw many names of people I knew first hand. There is so much history to the apparel supply chain I simply did not know - and now I understand it much better. As for my own bias of the divergent sides one takes on trade, I found myself leaning side to side like an old hill billy watching wrestling on TV as I squirmed in response to one sides rhetoric and the others B.S. Its well written. I like to think I'm a good industry writer, but I could not have done what Dr. Rivoli has achieved. Its a great yarn, maybe a little too heavy on the sweatshop, dogma and labor aspects of the issue, but then again, its written by an academic. I'm still waiting after 15 years of touring apparel factories all around the world to find an actual sweatshop. The only one I've ever seen was on a PBS documentary shot in New York of a horrifying factory there. Apparel chases the low cost needle. As Wal-Mart told me personally last decade, "when a US apparel contractor can make a dozen golf shirts at the same quality and price as we're getting from Cambodia, we'll buy them". Apparel chases the low cost needle. China is the world's apparel plant floor. Wal-Mart is the world's retail floor. Reality rules, and it is so inevitable it hurts. Are there any questions?
  
  

• Rags become Riches.

  
  By A1BMYKUX2PCJ5K on 2005-03-17
  An entertaining read on global economics -- instructive economic history that delves into economic theories. The author shares her insights as cotton is cultivated in Texas, woven in China, sold in Florida, and eventually winds up in vendors' stalls in Tanzania, with numerous other stops in between. The T-shirt's journey demonstrates a need for full or better access to markets as the moving force of capitalism, and encourages further discussion on the political methods used (or to be used) to achieve that access.
  
  
• great book on globalization
  By A6USTP4ZSRMPG on 2005-04-16
  An entertaining and insightful read on how the global economy really works for people. the author tackles the serious issues about globalization by exploring the life of her t-shirt, but she also is a great writer who can take the complex and make it both understanding and entertaining. bravo!
  
  
• T-shirt's Travels Tell of World Trade
  By A1NATT3PN24QWY on 2005-12-12
  In 1999, author Pietra Rivoli attended a Washington, D.C. demonstration against globalization. A young woman asked the crowd, "Who made your T-shirt?" before she described worldwide labor abuses and mistreatment of garment workers. That shouted question and the assumptions implicit in it stimulated the author's imagination. She decided to find the answer. Her compelling book tracks T-shirts from the Texas cotton fields, through manufacturing in China, to consumers in the U.S. and to Africa's used clothing market. In this interesting, original approach to the issues of globalization and industrialization, Rivoli shows the economic, political and social forces that come to bear on a T-shirt. Through she can't literally track a single shirt step-by-step, she sustains that metaphor. Buying a shirt, she works her way backward in time and space to find its origins, or the origins (and eventual lifespan and demise) of such T-shirts, by relying on inference, deduction and reasonable assumption. Her most stunning, most negative conclusion is that - despite debates over free trade and allegedly exploitative markets - everyone involved seems devoted to avoiding market forces altogether. We say this book deserves its own T-shirt with "Must Read" on the front and "Highly Recommended" on the back.
  
  
• Fascinating and insightful
  By A2DAH6YPSQ1GAI on 2005-07-09
  I agree with the other reviewers - this book rocks. The author has done an amazing job in researching the book, not only with her travels around the world but also in examining all kinds of other research that has been done and in talking to people. the writing is so good that you think you are reading a great story, but then you realize how much you have learned at the same time. I was surprised to see that she was a professor. None of my econ or MBA profs were ever this interesting. I highly recommend this book if you have an interest in current debates about trade and globalization.
  
  
• the chilling truth
  By A320AVA4TN5AJ0 on 2005-07-17
  Normally I don't read this serious a book but it was on a list of suggested titles in one of my community college classes. The issues it addresses were so clearly presented and although on the academic side, it kept my interest and I finished it in a weekend. Fodder for deeper discussion and made me a whole lot more aware of what's really going on out there in our global economy.
  
  
• Interesting Look at Global Trade
  By AB10W5FUXWAJ on 2005-06-25
  By tracing the life of a T-shirt, the author provides interesting insight into global trade. She was inspired by protests at the university she taught at. The book shows that the issues of global trade are not as clear cut either "free-traders" or anti-globabilizaiton protesters would have us believe. From the cotton fields of Texas, to the factories of China to the bizarre import quotas the issues are complex. The book will make you think no matter where you stand on the issue of global trade.
  
  
• believe it or not, an economics page-turner!
  By A2KO6Q17JB76D8 on 2005-07-10
  
  Buy it! I recently read a great review of this book that said it was "engrossing" and I thought, since when can economics be engrossing? But it's true. This is good scholarship and great storytelling rolled into one. The business and economics are fascinating, but the human drama is what draws you in. somehow the author was able bring out the people in the story, so that both the human and economic side of globalization comes through.
  I have read other books on globalization (Tom Friedman, Martin Wolf) and I liked those too, but so far, this is my favorite.
  
  
• The Must Read Business Book of 2005
  By A11A0XD48NAQPR on 2005-11-26
  Having read John Battelle's "The Search", I was all set to tell anyone who would listen it is THE business book of the year. After all, any book covering the history of search, the rise of Google, and how Google might be just in its infancy has to be as hot as GOOG's price is. Right?
  
  Well, as fine at Battelle's book is (and you really should read it), Rivoli's is better.
  
  Rivoli takes something as plebian as a tacky tourist T-shirt bought in South Florida and uses it as the start of a global tour from Lubbock to Shanghai to Long Beach to Miami to Brooklyn to Dar es Salaam. And you meet lots of fascinating people along the way, whom you won't soon forget. You'll learn more than you ever imagined about farm subsidies, transoceanic cargo fares, why 'the bottom keeps rising' in the 200 year history of sweatshops, and why everything you think happens to donated clothing is totally incorect.
  
  And she keeps all of it interesting. Despite being an economist (a profession that seems to delight in arcania), she has written a literal page-turner of a book.
  
  Don't read another story about China's unfair trade or protecting 'our jobs' until you read this book. This is the book that trade lobbyists and lawyers hope never becomes popular.
  
  Bravo!
  
  
• A Gloriously Fun Marriage of History, Technology and Economics - a Real Page Turner
  By A1GS450LERLO5V on 2006-08-11
  The only reason I give this book 5 stars is because I can't give it 6! This blessed relief from boring, tedious economic tomes is the best of it's kind since "The Incredible Bread Machine."
  
  After having known the comfortable pleasures of soft cotton clothing next to their skin, the 18th century British public suffered through two generations of itchy woolen undergarments. Why? For the same reason that 21st century garment makers from Bangladesh to Turkey, after playing tug of war for years with the leading American textile industry lobbyist, have suddenly switched sides to tug with him on his end of the rope: Job Protection. The weavers in 1719 Britain did not want to lose their jobs to cheap cotton imports from the east any more than American mills or third world nations with economies dependent on making inexpensive clothing want to see their jobs go to . . . . . .China, in this case.
  
  We learn why that's a mistaken belief, at least in part. Industry jobs aren't going to China, or Sri Lanka, or Mars, for that matter, as much as they are just going - period.
  
  Welcome to the world of cotton growers, subsidies, price supports, trade quotas, tariffs, free markets and, well, not so free markets. The author has penned a superb book which unpacks a complex topic. Using case studies of real folks she captures the nuances of an often arcane subject with astonishing clarity and brevity that spans the globe and time from 17th century England to 21st century Africa where a free market re-packages cheap upscale clothing discards in demand by a fashion saavy, if impoverished, public.
  
  In barely 200 pages you'll understand more about applied econmics than you imagined. You'll appreciate the success that comes to a country (the U.S., eg) where the institutions - farms, market, government, science and the universities - all work, making a "virtuous circle" out of which entrepreneurial resourcefulness can be well rewarded. The third world is missing a lot more than just money to compete effectively.
  
  Well written, fascinating, and timely, it covers the dark side as well as the irrepressable ingenuity of the human mind. Anyone can understand it, and everyone should enjoy it.
  
  
• A real eye opener
  By A2MGUNKW1ANLT5 on 2006-10-28
  At the beginning of the book, Pietra Rivoli sets out to find an answer to the anti-globalization cries of the activists, to build a case to convince them of the power of the markets in improving the life of the poor. Instead, we discover an intricate web of interrelationships of politics, economics and culture; we realize that the trade skeptics need the corporations, the corporations need the skeptics, but most importantly the sweatshop workers need them both.
  
  This book really stands out in its scope and conclusions. All too often we are exposed to one-sided attacks on or treatises for globalization - this book offers a comprehensive look at both sides, and more importantly it recognizes the importance of both. Amartya Sen (Nobel prize winner) proposed and supported many of the same ideas before, but this book articulates them exceptionally well and offers plenty of real, historical examples to seal the case.
  
  I read this book for a class, but it's a kind of book I would have no hesitation reading on my free time either - it's a solid investment of your time and a real eye opener.
  
  
• Thoroughly enjoyable and unique
  By AMU2AGKAUVUGU on 2005-05-17
  A unique and well-written book of international economics for anyone. No hard edges or hard opinions cloud this book's ingenious premise. From someone who has read many books on business and econ, this one is not only feel good but brilliant. Enjoy!
  
  
• Even-handed intro to why the rich are rich and the poor poor
  By A38QD6M8RYN7FL on 2006-06-26
  The author shows how new technologies and political clout have worked to insolate USA farmers from both the risks of the marketplace and the risks of farming. The advantage over impoverished farmers in Africa, is not simply that farmers in the United States receive subsidies, but farmers in the United States have organized to efficiently eliminate waste in the production process. They have turned waste into multiple streams of profit. In addition, they organize to lobby congress for relief from various kinds of risks and, of course, from taxes.
  
  The author takes her reader on brief excursions into history to explain the conditions today. She always ties events to individuals using their own words to describe their experiences. In the course of crossing the globe to meet the workers in the cotton industry she shows not only how a T-shirt comes to market, but who is involved in its production.
  
  This well written narrative provides an interesting introduction to global issues connected to free market capitalism. She presents grim facts without drawing moral conclusions.
  
  
• A real good book!
  By ADWK0VMB2Q3OS on 2006-11-07
  As an economist, I thought the book would be too simplistic. However, I found it both enjoyable and informative. It is well written and an easy read, something that I have come to appreciate having to read journal articles, working papers and textbooks which are usually not reader friendly.
  
  
• Good, but light-weighted
  By A32AG2QXME4TKK on 2007-09-11
  The book is an advocate of free market and a defender of the globalization. Basically the author portraits non-market forces to be bad (examples: artificial constraint on the labor worker's mobility, international trading protection, and restriction of new technology applications). She also proposes that free trade is good (example: used apparels in Africa). It is an interesting angle with which to examine the globalization phenomena. By recognizing that there are non-market forces at play, one should, or so the author seems to suggest, attribute negative effects (such as sweatshops) to these forces and work on eradicating such forces. The ideal situation would be, as author implies, an absolutely free market operating in bringing everyone maximum benefit.
  While there may be novelty in this theme, I do not feel that it merits all the details and tidbits as presented in the book. In fact, I find this book more like a research log than a final product. The stories and observations are definitely interesting and well-written. However it is not always clear where they lead to and what conclusion they are designed to support. I think the book can be reduced to 1/3 of its volume and still be able to make the same points.
  On the other hand, many conclusions are not well supported. For example, about trade restrictions, the author argues that US quota systems impact how capital and labor flows in the world, and shape the economy of other countries. While it is obvious that all US trading partners would behave under the influence of US trading policies, more quantitative evidences are required to ascertain the extend of such influence. Such details are lacking in the book. As another example, the book stated that China lost more textile jobs than the US. Therefore, the US jobs are not going to China, but are just disappearing due to technology advances. Such claim is not well-supported, either. These two forces (technological advances and job relocations) can both contribute to the job loss. Their relative importance in the US cannot be indicated by how much textile jobs are lost in China. (In addition, the book does not point out that most Chinese factories operate at a lower technological level than their US competitors. Therefore, the job loss rate due to technological advance is not the same in US and China.)
  On a more grand scale, the book fails to address the following issue, which is very relevant to the topics at hand. Globalization in essence is a process of integrating many previously local markets into a unified global market. Previously, each market has different states of balance and is supported by different Government infrastructure. After integration, capital, labor and product flow to maximize profit for the capitalists. Such flow disrupts all local balances before a global balance is reached. For example, the labor cost in the US today is reasonably high because most people have the choice of working as blue collar or white collar workers. Some people are willing to work for lower wage to avoid the extra training and investment required for white collar jobs. However the difference in wages cannot be too large. In China, on the other hand, the pool of unskilled labor is huge and opportunity of getting trained and advancing into white collar jobs is very limited. Therefore, the unskilled labor cost is very low in China. Moreover, the tradition and culture in China allows for lower safety standards and environmental standards as imposed by the Government. Now the current state of balance in the US is the result of adjustments over generations and is relatively optimal. In a global market, however, the US cannot keep its balance until the whole world reaches the same balance. In the long run, such re-balancing is not a big problem and is even desirable. However, in the short run, it brings shock to the US markets, and such shock is unevenly bore by the arguably most vulnerable population: the workers. To me, this is a very important issue in globalization. Economically, globalization is win-win and everyone eventually will benefit. Humanitarianly, however, there are people who suffer in the process and it is the duty of the society to help them and (God forbid) protect them.
  Overall, I'd say that this is a very interesting and thought provoking book. I enjoyed reading it at my leisure. However, I don't consider it to be of the caliber of an Economics textbook.
  
  
  
• A great story about international business and global economics
  By A2668GYUJK1HM1 on 2005-07-26
  This is an excellent book that educates the reader about international business and global economics through the story of the life of a t-shirt, from the cotton fields of Texas to the textile factories of China and to the mitumba markets of East Africa. Highly informative and a very enjoyable read - very realistic and not overly academic. A must for anyone interested in the realities of today's global economy, outsourcing, political lobbies and free markets.
  
  
• Real page-turner
  By A1UW1Z5P7LWO46 on 2005-11-03
  I am not an expert in economics or business, but this book was easy enough to understand and I got a lot of information from it. I am a slow reader but I finished this book within three days. This is a great book for anyone who want to know about global economy, international problems and so on. This is not like a text book but real entertainment. Highly recommended.
  
  
• The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy
  By A1W30GWPAU668H on 2006-11-18
  I only purchased this item for an MBA class I was taking. This book was ok but, to me, it wasn't very enthralling. It was informative about the cotton industry works and how the market effects the distribution of t-shirts. Overall this is not a book that I would have chosen to read on my own, although there were some in my class that did enjoy it.
  
  
• Good, casual read offering good perspective
  By A26SEHJR9KQMNK on 2007-01-15
  This book takes a pretty balanced approach to questions of globalization by tracing how a T-shirt is produced, from raw materials to the folded T-shirt in a department store, to the used T-shirts that are reprocessed or go to developing countries for a second life. Probably everyone can learn something from this book, and the narration is fairly engaging (it was good plane reading for me). The writer tries to keep the book agenda-free, putting forth both economists' and anti-globalizers' perspectives and describing how, to a certain degree, an effective global economy needs pushes from both camps.
  
  
• history of EVERYTHING about your t-shirt, from birth in a Texan cotton field to re-birth in a Tanzanian 2nd-hand clothing market
  By AYFNOHE3IQQ4G on 2008-04-21
  Allow me to provide a more descriptive title for this volume: What I did last summer + a history of cotton growing in America + a history of cotton mills around the world + a brief history of Shanghai + a brief history of child labor + a brief history of labor activism + a brief history of workplace safety regulations + a not-at-all-brief history of US textile protectionism + a characterization of the international market for used clothes. Interesting? Often.
  
  In the course of all these histories - occasionally interspersed with a reminder that we are following Rivoli's t-shirt around the world - we jump from England to Japan to Texas to West Africa; we leap back and forth (and back and forth) from century to century. By the middle of the book, I had gotten dizzy and wished it had been a long magazine article.
  
  But in fact, the second half is the most interesting. Rivoli gives a detailed history of textile protectionism in the United States, giving a peek into the dizzying, constantly morphing tariff and quota systems as well as the huge bureaucracy the system supports. And finally, she gives an illuminating description of what happens to the t-shirts after they get donated to the Salvation Army and how they make it to market stalls in East Africa.
  
  Rivoli is an economist and so recognizes that her inherent leaning is toward free trade, but she argues for the value of both sides of the textile battle, both the free traders and the student demonstrators.
  
  The first half of the book feels too long (even though it isn't that long), and Rivoli's strength is in illuminating description rather than careful analysis. But if you get bored, just skip ahead to the next chapter: There's plenty to choose from!
  
  [I listened to the unabridged audiobook narrated by Eliza Foss, published by Recorded Books. The reading is fine, but Foss's voice is too syrupy sweet and storybookish for 8 CDs (think the voice-over narration from Desperate Housewives).]
  
  
• Doesn't take sides; just informs.
  By A19N28I3SLUH97 on 2007-05-14
  An intelligent, fair minded, well-researched, and very interesting book. I was assigned to read it for a class, so I had to force myself to open it, but once I did, I had a hard time putting it down. The book is not only informative, it also reads like a good story. The author is an economics professor whose writing style is friendly and accessible. Rather than being yet another abstract book about the global economy, it's about how everyday people function in, and are affected by, the global economy. The book doesn't take sides, it just informs the reader about something that affects us all.
  
  
• Can you understand global economics?
  By A14TJU8Y2MBHXO on 2007-07-05
  It's all about the money, someone said. This wonderful book starts with the growing of cotton subsidized by the US government, the spinning and weaving in China, the T-shirt making in Bangla Desh or wherever, its wear in the United States, and its ultimnate fate as second-hand clothing in West Africa, the only free market found by the author.
  A simple and elegant account of interconnected global economics, of who gets value, who adds value, and who gets the money. Fun to read.
  
  

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• A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy
• Going Global: The Textiles And Apparel Industry