This is the only book that has comprehensively analyzed the globalization of the American Apparel industry. Allen Israel Rosen spent almost 10 years investigating the US domestic apparel workers’ problems. She is now probing for the changes in the trade policies and the global economics which have been responsible for changes in the global textile industry. In her book, “Making Sweatshops” she probes the possibility of promoting globalization in a way that blends both economic development and globalization in both developed and developing countries, (Rosen, 3). Rosen bases her concern on economic and social justice. She focuses mostly on poor women who work hard in developing countries for poor wages. Her concern is to ensure that the globalization of the apparel industry is realized with economic and social concern. Rosen closely questions the role of globalization in the textile industry. She looks at the history of current policies in the textile industry from the cold war politics and the construction of the great Pacific Rim. The book narrates the era of trade protectionism by Ronald Reagan to the implementation of NAFTA, and to the effect of WTO on pushing for international trades, (Rosen, 2). This book presents both liberal and professional perspectives.
In a liberal (academic) perspective, we expect the content of the book to focus on the nature of an issue. The issue should be one that impacts the society as a whole. A perspective can be termed liberal (academic) when it focuses on issues in a macro perspective. This book focuses on how the global policies have impacted the textile industry all over the world. It explains the effects of neoclassical economics and free trade on the women who worked in the apparel industry globally. The book also endeavors to explain the effect of post war policies on the textile industry. It gives an example of japan textile industry which was occupied by the US military after the World War II, (Collins, 51). The book explains the process of liberation of the American Textile Industry. The books provided for the protectionist policies which were used by the United States to protect the domestic apparel industry from the imports from Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong.
We can also say that the book presents liberal (academic) perspective by looking at its endeavor to explain how the United States government responded to the free trade in the textile industry. After the end of World War II the global market for the apparel and textile industry started to be opened, (Collins, 67). This led to a struggle between the protectionists and the liberalizers. In the 1980s during the Reagan’s rule, the protectionists eventually failed. This marked the turning point for global liberalization of the American textile industry. Rosen also explain how liberalization affected the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In 1994, NAFTA was formed, and this was the major breakthrough in liberalization and globalizing the American textile industry, (Rosen, 73). All these try to explain the various changes in the American textile industry which lead to the global apparel trade. It explains how these changes have affected America in a way such that many apparel jobs have been lost.
This book can also be said to present a professional perspective. Professional perspective involves looking at the nature of an issue as it impacts business. The book examines the nature of two main issues; the trade protection and trade liberation of the American apparel industry. For both the issues, the book endeavors to explain how they affect textile business in the United States. The book explains how liberalization of apparel industry led to loss of businesses in the American textile industry.
References
Rosen, Ellen Israel. Making sweatshops: The globalization of the US apparel industry. Univ of California Press, 2002.
Collins, Jane L. Threads: Gender, labor, and power in the global apparel industry. University of Chicago Press, 2009.
