Beth Macy is the author of the widely acclaimed and bestselling books Truevine and Factory Man. Based in Roanoke, Virginia for three decades, her reporting has won more than a dozen national awards, including a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard.
A New York Times Notable Book of 2014 One of Janet Maslin's Top 10
Books of 2014 in the New York Times One of The Christian Science
Monitor's Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2014 One of Publishers Weekly
Best Books of 2014: Nonfiction A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist:
Business "In a class with other runaway debuts like Laura
Hillenbrand's "Seabiscuit" and Katherine Boo's "Behind the
Beautiful Forevers" These nonfiction narratives are more stirring
and dramatic than most novels. And Ms. Macy writes so vigorously
that she hooks you instantly. You won't be putting this book down."
--Janet Maslin, New York Times
"Factory Man deserves to be read for anyone wanting to wrap their
heads around the present-day dynamics and politics of
globalisation. Macy's book is an important read...."--Shawn Donnan,
Financial Times
"A bracing saga.... Macy is an engaging writer."--Michael Boodro,
Elle Decor
"A remarkable work.... Rarely, if ever, have I read a piece of book
journalism that was more painstakingly researched or more
compellingly transferred to the printed page.... It's as much about
people as it is about bedroom suites and international commerce,
and that human touch imbues it with the flesh and heart that sets
it apart from most nonfiction."--Jeff DeBell, The Roanoke Times
"A triumph.... Get Factory Man and take your time with it. It's a
big ol' delicious toasted sandwich of a book."--Kurt Rheinheimer,
The Roanoker
"A truly remarkable work of researched narrative nonfiction, one
the probes every corner of its topic and values every subject who
has something to say.... Factory Man does justice to every hidden
corner of the story. It's a book that leaves you feeling better for
having read it."--Lucas Mann, San Francisco Chronicle
"A well-crafted and epic tale.... Artfully told."--Marc Levinson,
The Wall Street Journal
"An educational, fascinating reading adventure.... A moving book
about the loss of American jobs -- one of the most vital issues of
this century."--Steve Weinberg, The Dallas Morning News
"An Appalachian Random Family.... Macy digs in all directions,
visiting company towns without companies, unearthing family
secrets, and explaining the economic forces that determine our
lives."--Boris Kachka, New York Magazine
"Beth Macy has done a masterful job in personalizing the biggest
American economic story of our time--how to save American jobs in
the 21st Century. John Bassett III is a cinematic figure and
quintessential American, battling for his company, his town and his
country."--Jonathan Alter, author of The Center Holds: Obama and
His Enemies
"Beth Macy sees twists and subtleties that other journalists can't
see, and she writes about the world around her with grit, honesty
and remarkable grace. She has a police detective's diligence and
determination, a poet's way with words, and a born storyteller's
gift for spot-on narrative."--Martin Clark, author of The Legal
Limit
"Boisterous.... Factory Man is a Big Tale of a Big Man doing Big
Things, and a rebuke to those who would declare American
manufacturing dead."--Earl Pike, Cleveland Plain Dealer
"I find myself deeply sympathetic to Macy's essential point, which
is that globalization inflicts a great deal of suffering on
millions of people, something the news media should do a better job
of acknowledging and the government should do a better job of
mitigating."--Joe Nocera, New York Times
"I've been reading Beth Macy for years. She is a great American
writer. She sees everything, all the precious detail. A few years
back, as the world was collapsing around us, she did a story on the
temp who was answering phones at a hotline for those in financial
hot water. The temp was this immense hero in all these ways that
nobody else would have ever recognized. Of course, Macy never
called her a hero. She just let the story do the work."--Roland
Lazenby, author of Michael Jordan
"In a compelling and meticulously researched narrative, Macy
follows the story from the Blue Ridge Mountains to China and
Indonesia, chronicling [John] Bassett's tireless work to revive his
company, and with it, an American town."--Garden & Gun
"In a world of blue-collar victims, where logging chains seal
forever the doors of mills and factories from the Rust Belt to the
Deep South, Beth Macy's award-winning look at one furniture maker's
refusal to give in is a breath of hope-and a damn fine story to
read. The book tracks John Bassett's fight to keep American jobs on
this side of borders and oceans, and keeps one American town from
becoming a place of empty storefronts and FOR SALE signs."--Rick
Bragg, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Most They Ever Had
"It's a must-read just for its look at what happens at home when we
send jobs overseas and how we all play a role. This one is a
page-turner."--DesignSponge
"John Bassett's story has everything. An extraordinary dynasty, a
relevant and inspiring message, and one of the best heroes I've
read about in years. It works on every level, from the most
personal betrayal to the realities of the global economy, from the
struggle of one worker in a small Appalachian town to the future of
our cultural as a whole. Part of me wishes I'd found John Bassett
III, because this is powerful stuff, but it's obvious the story is
in excellent hands with Beth Macy. Sometimes the right writer comes
along with the right story at the right time. This is clearly that
book."--Bret Witter, author of Dewey and Until Tuesday
"Like some of the best nonfiction writers today - Michael Lewis and
Katherine Boo come to mind first - Macy takes a topic that is
either too dry, too complicated, or too depressing for most
journalists to tackle and she tackles it with vigor, integrity,
soul, and skill."--Janet Saidi, Christian Science Monitor
"Macy brings to the story a keen understanding of life among
factory workers.... At its best, "Factory Man" traces the
intertwined stories of a family, business, and town: the complex,
paternalistic relationships, the shared secrets, the vexed bonds of
interdependence. Macy writes movingly about what happens when
workers in these factory towns face not only closing factories and
skyrocketing unemployment but the loss of their community
identity."--Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe
"Macy chronicles Bassett's saga with vigor, integrity, soul, and
skill, offering a humdinger of a globalization story and a true
drama that reads like a novel."--Christian Science Monitor
"Macy's down-to-earth writing style and abundance of personal
stories from manufacturing's beleaguered front lines make her work
a stirring critique of globalization."--Carl Hays, Booklist
"Macy's passion and enthusiasm are palpable on every page.... She
makes a complex, now universal story understandable."--Mimi Swartz,
New York Times Book Review
"Macy's riveting narrative is rich in local color.... Vivid
reporting."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Nonfiction storytelling at its finest.... It does what the best
business books should: It delivers a heavily researched, highly
entertaining story, at the end of which you realize you've learned
something.... This is a great American story, the kind that we
don't read often enough."--Bryan Burrough, New York Times
"Spirited, meticulously researched and well-written.... A
page-turning tale that covers the company's history, family
squabbles and the black-sheep son who rescued the company through
pluck, persistence and political wrangling."--Margaret Jaworski,
Success Magazine
"The author's brightly written, richly detailed narrative not only
illuminates globalization and the issue of offshoring, but succeeds
brilliantly in conveying the human costs borne by low-income people
displaced from a way of life.... A masterly feat of
reporting."--Kirkus (starred review)
"The epic struggle of Virginia furniture manufacturer John Bassett
III (JBIII) to save his business has given crackerjack reporter
Beth Macy the book she was born to write. Longtime champion of the
downtrodden and the working American, Macy brings globalization
down to a human scale, giving a real voice and a recognizable face
to everyone involved, from factory worker to government official to
Chinese importer. Thorough reporting and brilliant writing combine
to make FACTORY MAN an exciting, fast-paced account of a
quintessentially American story that affects us all."--Lee Smith,
author of Guests on Earth
"The unlikely hero of Factory Man is a determined, ornery, and
absolutely indomitable...business man. He's the head of a family
furniture company and damned if he's going to be pushed around.
Beth Macy has given us an inspiring and engaging tale for our
times, but not the expected one."--Alex Jones, Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of Losing the News: The Future of the News
that Feeds Democracy, Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media,
Politics and Public Policy and Laurence M. Lombard Lecturer in the
Press and Public Policy
"This business book, laced with Byzantine intrigue, has "made for
Hollywood" stamped all over it."--Cecil Johnson, The Fort Worth
Star-Telegram
A "deeply nuanced portrayal of the effects of globalization on a
single company.... Exhaustively researched."--Chris Serres,
Minneapolis Star Tribune
A "feat of reporting.... There's a big generous heart at the center
of this book, and it's hard not to compare Factory Man to the
seminal nonfiction work of Tracy Kidder or even the storytelling
that made David Simon's The Wire one of the best TV shows ever....
Factory Man is a valuable American story, and one of the best books
I've read this year."--Elisabeth Donnelly, Flavorwire
Beth Macy "got the story of a lifetime. And she wrote this book in
the "Seabiscuit" tradition, combining the power of
truth-that's-stranger-than-fiction with the colorful verve of a
novel."--Janet Maslin, New York Times
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