Making It in America is 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.
Ben Waxman spent a decade organizing workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin, fighting for men and women at a time when national support for unions had sunk to an all-time low. Frustrated with the state of the world, he lands back in his hometown of Portland, Maine, to rethink his life. There, he meets Whitney Reynolds, a restless bartender eager for a challenge. In each other, they see a better future, a version of the American dream they can build together.
Ben and Whitney set out to prove that union-made, all-American-sourced apparel manufacturing is possible in the 21st century. Their quest takes us across the nation and across time, from the cotton fields of Mississippi to the hollowed-out garment district in New York City to a family-owned zipper company in Los Angeles to the enormous knit-and-dye houses in North Carolina. While battling anti-immigrant hostility, trade wars, and a global pandemic, they grapple with the true meaning of made-in-USA in our globalized world.
Making It in America offers a fascinating new take on free-trade economics and manufacturing history. Woven through the Waxmans’ story is the essential story of textiles and their critical role in shaping capitalism. It was the demand for cheap cloth that sparked the industrial revolution. It was the brutal conditions in New England's textile mills that first drove workers to organize. Making It in America is a deeply personal account of how individual choices shape a nation. Each touchpoint casts a rare, compassionate look at what came before, where we are now, and where we’re going—through the people, places, and ecologies that produce the fabric of our lives.
Praise
#1 on Cosmopolitan magazine’s Best Nonfiction Books in 2024
#2 on Malcolm Gladwell’s Next Big Idea Club’s 40 Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in 2024
Financial Times Top Business Books to Read in 2024
Publishers Weekly Top 10 Pick in Business and Economics
Lit Hub’s “What Should You Read Next?” best reviewed books
Publishers Weekly starred review
”Slade explores the imprint that decades of neoliberalism and offshoring has left on America’s worker and economic resilience through the Waxmans’ compelling story. Made-in-USA enthusiasts and free-trade hawks alike will be rooting for this couple to succeed.”
“Slade’s book gives a granular sense of just how hard it is for business owners, particularly those in manufacturing, to do the right thing by their workers in America today. It also conveys just how meaningful and rewarding building a truly ethical business can be, for owners and workers alike.”
“By following the Waxmans over years as they build their business — and more than once come close to losing everything — Slade tells a story of trade, globalization, capital, labor and the political choices that have led to American manufacturing’s decline, and makes an impassioned case for its return.”
—The New York Times
“Americans’ future depends on a manufacturing revival,” Ms. Slade insists. There’s certainly a plausible argument to be made for that.
—The Wall Street Journal
“This galvanizing call for Americans ‘to start making things for themselves’ serves as both a sweeping report on a globalized industry and a practical road map for aspiring small-scale manufacturers. Readers will feel invigorated.”
“Sexy and exciting … reading it is like seeing the American Dream play out in real time.”
“A knowledgeable indictment of failed American trade and labor policies, Rachel Slade's timely book, powered by her admirable skills as a storyteller, also provides a much-needed glimpse of a potentially fairer, more equitable future for American workers and consumers.”
— Philip Dray, author of There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America
From Rachel’s op-ed in the New York Times:
I inherited my father’s “made in the U.S.A.” credo, obsessively hunting for labels, flipping over plates and chairs and turning clothes inside-out to find a country of origin. Which is how, over the ensuing decades, I became exquisitely aware that much of the stuff I bought was no longer made in the U.S.A. Everything from my Gap sweatshirts in the ’90s to my clunky desktop in the early aughts, and eventually to my refrigerator and dishwasher, was made elsewhere….