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The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade

Added on October 25, 2014 in More Patriotic Shirts
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Praise for THE TRAVELS OF A T-SHIRT IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY “Engrossing . . . (Rivoli) goes wherever the T-shirt goes, and there are surprises around every corner . . . full of memorable characters and vivid scenes.”—Time “An engaging and illuminating saga. . . . Rivoli follows her T-shirt along its route, but that

Praise for THE TRAVELS OF A T-SHIRT IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

“Engrossing . . . (Rivoli) goes wherever the T-shirt goes, and there are surprises around every corner . . . full of memorable characters and vivid scenes.”
—Time

“An engaging and illuminating saga. . . . Rivoli follows her T-shirt along its route, but that is like saying that Melville follows his whale. . . . Her nuanced and fair-minded approach is all the more powerful for eschewing the pretense of ideological absolutism, and her telescopic look through a single industry has all the makings of an economics classic.”
—The New York Times

“Rarely is a business book so well written that one would gladly stay up all night to finish it. Pietra Rivoli’s The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is just such a page-turner.”
—CIO magazine

“Succeeds admirably . . . T-shirts may not have changed the world, but their story is a useful account of how free trade and protectionism certainly have.”
—Financial Times

“[A] fascinating exploration of the history, economics, and politics of world trade . . . The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is a thought-provoking yarn that exhibits the ugly, the bad, and the good of globalization, and points to the unintended positive consequences of the clash between proponents and opponents of free trade.”
—Star-Telegram (Fort Worth)

“Part travelogue, part history, and part economics, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is ALL storytelling, and in the grand style. A must-read.”
—Peter J. Dougherty, Senior Economics Editor, Princeton University Press author of Who’s Afraid of Adam Smith?

“A readable and evenhanded treatment of the complexities of free trade . . . As Rivoli repeatedly makes clear, there is absolutely nothing free about free trade except the slogan.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

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Comments

Peter Lorenzi says:
October 25, 2014 at 2:41 pm

Interesting, important, broad in scope, full of technical and historic detail Spurred by a Georgetown student anti-sweatshop protest, Pietra Rivoli took up the task of tracing the life of a (tacky souvenir) t-shirt she buys in Florida, to examine the economics and politics of this non-trivial segment of the apparel industry. Why she buys the t-shirt in the first place remains a mystery. Why she needs one from Florida that she will likely discard is even more of a mystery. She made me think about studying the American practice of souvenir shopping and excess consumption…

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Julius O. Takacs says:
October 25, 2014 at 2:55 pm

Globalization Demystified All of us have an opinion on globalization. We either fall into the protectionist or free trade camp or perhaps somewhere between but few of us have a clear concept of the mechanics of globalization. Alan Tonselson’s book “The Race to the Bottom” tried explaining it using wry statistical economic analysis but Rivoli breathes life into globalization by fleshing out the people involved in the life cycle of an ordinary T-shirt. Her book illustrates this phenomenon to the…

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Ilya Grigorik "igrigorik" says:
October 25, 2014 at 2:58 pm

A real eye opener At the beginning of the book, Pietra Rivoli sets out to find an answer to the anti-globalization cries of the activists, to build a case to convince them of the power of the markets in improving the life of the poor. Instead, we discover an intricate web of interrelationships of politics, economics and culture; we realize that the trade skeptics need the corporations, the corporations need the skeptics, but most importantly the sweatshop workers need them both. 

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