Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the USA, with Rachel Slade

Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the USA, with Rachel Slade
April 16, 2024 @ 2:45-4pm
This is a look at the story of manufacturing in America, asking if it can ever successfully return to our shores and why our nation depends on it. It is told through the experience of a young couple as they attempt to rebuild a lost industry, ethically. Ben and Whitney Waxman are tireless idealists attempting to do the impossible: 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 drug dependency, Ben lands back in his hometown of Portland, Maine, desperate to prove that ethical manufacturing is possible. He meets Whitney, a bartender wrestling with her own complicated past. 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: cotton fields in Mississippi, NYC’s hollowed-out garment district, a family-owned zipper company in LA to knit-and-dye factories in North Carolina. The book grapples with what "Made in the USA" really means to us today. It offers a unique look at global politics, economics, and labor through the story of textile manufacturing, keeping in mind that it was the demand for cheap cloth that sparked the industrial revolution and the brutality of the textile industry that first drove workers to organize. The Waxmans' quest tells us how our country got here, where we are now, and where we're headed through the people that produce the fabric of our lives. Rachel is an author, editor and journalist.
This session replaces “Superb Suspense: Classic Movie Discussions, with Bobbie Stein” on Notorious.