Story spotlights fight between furniture maker, overseas

Little, Brown and Co., 451 pages, $28.

By Janet Maslin

New York Times

Beth Macy, a longtime reporter for the Roanoke Times in Virginia, understood how lucky she was when she accidentally uncovered the great, gripping story told in “Factory Man.” You won’t be putting this book down.

The genesis of “Factory Man” was a series of articles Macy wrote on a subject she thought badly overlooked: the effects of offshoring on America’s working class. Her focus was on the former furniture capital of this nation: the Appalachian regions of Virginia and North Carolina so rich with hardwood and cheap labor that they had once monopolized a market.

Macy meant to describe these conditions as effects of globalization. So she went looking for mountain families who had spent generations working for the region’s furniture giants, until the whole industry was walloped by cheaper furniture imported from China. She found all that and more in the battling Bassetts, a feudal family of factory owners.

John Bassett III, with whom Macy spent a lot of time, is the grandson and namesake of the company’s founder. In the irresistible prologue mentioned above, it is 2002 and JBIII, as the book calls him, has found his way to a furniture factory in northern China, in the region near Dalian, that is making exact knockoffs of furniture his Virginia company makes.

A wealthy Chinese businessman and Communist Party official has proposed that JBIII shut down U.S. production and start retailing cheaper Chinese copies, but fat chance. He’s not quitting. He’s going to war.

By the 1960s, workers aren’t as willing to be exploited. Overseas manufacturing capabilities are improving. Questions of how the business can survive weigh heavily on manufacturers’ minds.

The ’80s answer brings JBIII’s attitude into stark contrast with those of his fellow owners. Companies merge; Wall Street takes over; laying off workers and closing plants is seen as smart rather than damaging.

Macy leaves some suspense about what actually happened to this book’s principals. And until now, the upstairs-downstairs Bassett story has received virtually no coverage in mainstream press outlets, so no spoilers here.

“Factory Man” celebrates JBIII as both a populist and a canny businessman. Macy acknowledges that she is no business writer, but she appreciates a man who realized that when conditions around him changed so drastically, everything about his company had to change, too.