T-Shirt Travels Review – Preface

Preface

The preface opens and we are with the author at a rally at Georgetown University protesting globalization. This sets a good tone for the rest of the book. The exact perspective the writer will take becomes crystal clear when she quotes a protestor seizing the microphone to ask the crowd, “who made your t-shirt?” This book is an inspection of globalization through the lens of the ubiquitous t-shirt.

Some of Pietra’s most fundamental arguments and observations are revealed in this power-packed but enjoyable opener. She states the t-shirt story is less about competitive markets than politics, history and innovation. She also proposes a bold viewpoint on the relationship between global companies and those that protest them: co-conspirators. She closes this thought with the statement, “in the unintentional conspiracy between the two sides there is promise.”

The preface ends with a mention of China. Textiles and China have become two words so closely tied that this is no surprise. She doesn’t offer a point of view at this pont. But there is an entire section of the book devoted to China so we will certainly touch upon the subject again.

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This is part of a chapter by chapter reaction to The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade.

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