In her book, “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy,” Pietra Rivoli, finance and international business teacher, takes her readers on a fantastic adventure across the globe to reveal the life story of her T-shirt that she purchased for $6. Rivoli speaks with the businessmen around the world who played a part in the life of her T-shirt, which forces her to confront her own assumptions about economic, ethical, and political effects of globalization.
The journey of her T-shirt begins at a West Texas cotton field. She provides her readers with a history of cotton production in the United States, which started when cotton cloth and years began to be produced in England. After covering two chapters on the developments in the American cotton industry, she proceeds to explain how cotton travels from America to China, either by train or in a truck, and ultimately to a cotton yarn factory. She learns and informs her readers that her T-shirt and many others like it are prepared in Chinese garment factories.
Next she provides an overview of the history of development of the cotton and textile industry in China (Rivoli), and even discusses the Chinese labor working in textile mills and garment factories. She also writes how tariffs and quotas have been placed and lifted over the years in order to regulate the amount of imported Chinese apparel being sold in America and to allow the American cloth industry to survive. She also discusses the used clothing business in the United States and how a majority of the used clothing is exported to other countries.
Rivoli points out that the U.S. has been the largest exporter of used clothes in the world for quite some time. She also points out that the apparel recycling industry in the country comprises mostly of thousands of small family businesses. She goes on to explain how used clothing are is sorted out into a wide variety of categories before being shipped to other countries, however, she also reveals that no every country allows the import of used clothes. Through the life story of her own T-shirt, Rivoli ends up examining the international trade of garments. Rivoli combines an alluring story with meaningful scholarship to show that both the critics and supporters of globalization have oversimplified the world of international trade.
In her book, “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy,” Pietra Rivoli reveals the human side and the politics of the globalization debate by using a simple T-shirt. She uncovers the businesses, the politics, both bad and good, the dreams and hopes of real people, and the enlightening histories involved in the international textile and garment industry. By tracing the tracks of her T-shirt’s life and the stories of the people connected to it, Rivoli allows her readers to take a very distinguished glance at the economics and politics of globalization.
Works Cited
Rivoli, Pietra. The Travels Of A T-shirt In The Global Economy, An Economist Examines The Markets, Power, And Politics Of World Trade. 2nd ed. Hoboken: Wiley, 2009. Print.
