
"Factory Man" chronicles John Bassett III's battle against Chinese imports to save American jobs. This NYT bestseller sparked crucial debates on globalization's human cost, with Pulitzer winner Rick Bragg calling it "a breath of hope - and a damn fine story to read."
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What would you do if a Communist Party official suggested you close your family's century-old factories and let him supply you instead-at prices so low they defied economic logic? In 2002, John D. Bassett III, third-generation furniture maker from rural Virginia, found himself in exactly this position. Standing in a dusty Dalian factory near the North Korean border, he watched Chinese businessman He YunFeng unveil plans for an "American Furniture Industrial Park" designed to flood U.S. markets with bedroom sets at what YunFeng called "tuition price"-selling at $100 to capture market share, even at a loss. For most American manufacturers, this moment signaled surrender. For JBIII, it meant war. His subsequent battle against Chinese dumping would make him an outcast among competitors already offshoring production, alienate family members, and ultimately save hundreds of American jobs while revealing globalization's brutal human cost.