When talking about a complex subject such as international trade, it may be easier to discuss one item and the journey it takes from being grown to being worn. In the Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, Pietra Rivoli explores the elements behind globalization by tracking the story of her $6 T-shirt. Through the journey, Rivoli shows how the advocates and critics of globalization often simplify the issues behind international trade. Splitting this up into four parts, Rivoli can go into depth about each process in the making of the t-shirt.
Part one entitled Kings Cotton, starting in a West Texas cotton field, Rivoli reflects on a trip to Lubbock, Texas, where she met Nelson Reinsch, a cotton farmer age 87. While many of the United States competes with more developed countries for automotives, and chemical companies. While the cotton in the United States is being sent to under developed countries. This first part also speaks on the history and the actual statistics about cotton. The first factories produced cotton. This shows that the cotton production has been around for many years. Part two takes you through the journey of being made in China. The cotton is either on a truck or train, going to California where it will then be put onto a boat where it begins its journey across the ocean to China. In Shanghai, the number 36 cotton yarn factory is responsible for the yarn that is creating this t-shirt that Rivoli is wearing. She ends this section by speaking about a young girl whose mother was paying for her education with the money that she would get from working in the factory. This sets up and helps others understand the good this money is doing for those working even if those circumstances don’t seem ideal.
Part three and four, discuss the final leg of her T-shirt's journey. Going from its return to America Bethesda, Maryland at a Salvation Army, which later was sent to Sub Saharan Africa where it entered another trade in a different location. It became mitumba a Swahili term describing the clothes that are thrown away by Americans and Europeans, and worn by all the people in Tanzania. The purpose of this T-shirt was to show Rivoli’s own personal journey of understanding international trade. Breaking it down into a simple object instead of terms that are not familiar to the average person was very beneficial for all who read.
Rivoli wrote this book because she became fascinated by the life of a humble T-shirt after at a protest in 1999 about the “nameless” person who made her shirt or any shirt. Rivoli also wanted to know what that person's workday and living conditions were like. I believe that Rivoli also wanted to show the human tales beneath the economics and politics of globalization.
What I enjoyed about the book, other than how easy it was to understand; was this idea of philanthropy to African countries. I personally found that part very surprising and shocking. I never thought that American and European countries donated their extra clothing to countries and they then use them in their own trading system. However, one thing about this free market is that money is not being made for the country and there is no tracking the imports and exports. I think that if there was a regulation on these things and there was a way for them to control the market it could create profit and jobs for all. It was not a book that was too difficult to read as far as the concept and the language because of the course, I just don’t think I would read it on my own time. I think for someone who was interested in globalization they would enjoy this book and all the facts included.
I also enjoyed that there were real stories and real accounts by people who lived in the places that she would talk about. Many authors will state things and put stories together and give names but won’t take tie to add their actual experience with that person and give detail about what they had to say. In the first part of the book, Rivoli stated that “No matter how bad working conditions are in factories in Chinese, Vietnam, and other developing countries compared to Western standards, those factory jobs still are a significantly-empowering move up for the primarily-female workers who otherwise would be mired in abject rural poverty back home in their village. “This shows that these women working in the factories are finding their own sense of being. These conditions may not be ideal for us in the United States, but when you think about those who are making a living from this and are good at it and found their way of happiness because they can provide something. That in itself outweighs the bad that we may think is going on. Our way of living compared to those in other countries are completely different, so we cannot put our ideas and what we believe to be wrong or right on anyone else. Because these places may not believe the way our workforce is set, is a correct way to do things.
Throughout the journey of this T-shirt, Rivoli discusses relevant issues such as the development of the cotton industry in the United States, and labor rights activism, tariffs, import limits to explain the journey and the complexity that goes into creating a t-shirt. The book included a few photos that help the reader gain more understanding of globalization as it really happens to a product so familiar to us all.
Personally, I believe this was a very well written book. Once someone has made their mind up about something, it is normally hard to get that view out of your head. I believe that Rivoli did a great job capturing the journey without taking her personal views into the book. However, she made many claims that the cotton textile industry was necessary in igniting the “take-off” into industrialization in countries. Many people may be able to argue that or may be able to show data or specific facts stating otherwise. I think that even with a book like this you must be careful with the language that you use as well as making sure that anything you say can be backed up or it is something that if it is incorrect or lacks true validity it cannot be questioned to where you are being discredited.
As we come to an end of this journey, it is important to remember the purpose in the first place. Geography, this t-shirt is a great example how things move from across the united states and across the world. If we think back to the start of the semester we talked about globalization and defined it as, Worldwide processes that make the world, its economic system, and its society more uniform, more integrated, more interdependent. This definition and book show the processes of one single item that many of us wear every single day.
It is also connecting back to the class and the idea of geography by touching on recycling. This may not seem like a big deal, or something that would really be linked to globalization however many of the items that circulate around the world have been recycled one way or another. They have either been passed down if it is something tangible and wearable. Or recycled to make sure that the environment in still intact and functioning properly.
Even in many developing countries, global activism has made many factory jobs available, much better and much safer than ever was the case during the Industrial Revolution in England and America. This book is something that opens the eyes and sheds some light on the idea and the concept of globalization by traveling with Pietra Rivoli, and her T-shirt