Boom, bust, exodus : the Rust Belt, the maquilas, and a tale of two cities

Resource Information

The work Boom, bust, exodus : the Rust Belt, the maquilas, and a tale of two cities represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Manchester City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Boom, bust, exodus : the Rust Belt, the maquilas, and a tale of two cities

Title remainder

the Rust Belt, the maquilas, and a tale of two cities

Statement of responsibility

Chad Broughton

Creator

• Broughton, Chad

Subject

• Employees
• Galesburg (Ill.) -- Economic conditions
• Galesburg (Ill.) -- Social conditions
• Globalization -- Social aspects
• Globalization -- Social aspects -- Illinois | Galesburg
• Globalization -- Social aspects -- Mexico | Reynosa (Tamaulipas)
• Illinois -- Galesburg
• Maytag Corporation
• Maytag Corporation -- Employees
• Economic history
• Offshore assembly industry
• Offshore assembly industry -- Mexico | Reynosa (Tamaulipas)
• Reynosa (Tamaulipas, Mexico) -- Economic conditions
• Reynosa (Tamaulipas, Mexico) -- Social conditions
• Social history
• Working class
• Working class -- Illinois | Galesburg
• Working class -- Mexico | Reynosa (Tamaulipas)
• Mexico -- Reynosa (Tamaulipas)

Language

eng

Summary

"In 2002, the town of Galesburg, a slowly declining Rustbelt city of 34,000 in western Illinois, learned that it would soon lose its largest factory, a Maytag refrigerator plant that had anchored Galesburg's social and economic life for half a century. Workers at the plant earned $15.14 an hour, had good insurance, and were assured a solid retirement. In 2004, the plant was relocated to Reynosa, Mexico, where workers spent 13-hour days assembling refrigerators for $1.10 an hour. In Boom, Bust, Exodus, Broughton offers a look at the transition to a globalized economy, from the perspective of those who have felt its effects most. In today's highly commoditized world, we are increasingly divorced from the origins of the goods we consume; the human labor required to create our smart phones and hybrid cars is so far removed from the end product we need not even think about it. And yet, Broughton shows, the human cost behind the shifting currents of the global economy remains a reality. Broughton illuminates these complexities through a tale of two cities that have fared very differently in the global contest to woo or retain fickle capital. In Galesburg, the economy is a shadow of what it once was. Reynosa, in contrast, has become one of the exploding 'second-tier cities' of the developing world, thanks to the influx of foreign-owned, export-oriented maquiladoras. And yet even these distinctions cannot be finely drawn: families struggle to get by in Reynosa, and the city is beset by violence and a ruthless drug war. Those left behind in declining of Galesburg, meanwhile, do not see themselves as helpless victims: many have gone back to school, scramble from job to job, and have learned to adapt and even thrive. It is a downsized existence, but a full-sized life nonetheless"--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Biography type

contains biographical information

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

330.9773/49

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

HC108.G26

LC item number

B76 2015

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography