A sophisticated, persuasive argument that “Made in America” means a stronger America.
In a series of essays, a team of experts argues that a robust manufacturing sector is necessary to keep the American dream alive.
Following up on the notable 2009 work Manufacturing a Better Future for America, editor McCormack (Lean Machines, 2002, etc.) and like-minded business wonks suggest ways to nurture a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing. The book comes at a pivotal moment; the sector has lost nearly 6 million jobs in the 21st century, and its contribution to the gross domestic product declined to 11.9 percent in 2012 from 22.7 percent in 1970. Renewed interest in rebuilding America’s manufacturing base, however, offers a chance to change course. The book’s 10 contributing authors—including business executives, engineers and journalists—contend that the United States must adopt new policies regarding trade, infrastructure, taxes, education and energy and develop a comprehensive strategy to encourage domestic production while leveling the international playing field. McCormack opens with a sobering assessment of the state of American manufacturing, and his survey of key industries such as semiconductors, chemicals and automobiles reveals the United States as a diminished giant, outstripped by global rivals. In an equally compelling chapter, trade lawyer Eric Garfinkel calls for stronger enforcement of World Trade Organization rules to prevent some nations from bending them. Journalist Harold Meyerson is perhaps the group’s biggest skeptic, as he points to Germany’s vibrant manufacturing culture to argue that an industrial revival without labor unions is no revival at all. This articulate, well-sourced and skillfully constructed anthology covers an impressive amount of ground. The authors tackle thorny issues, such as value-added taxation, labor relations and Chinese currency manipulation, and often challenge prevailing wisdom; for example, manufacturing advocate Harry Moser contends that corporations’ narrow focus on labor costs has led them to overlook the sizable hidden costs of shifting production overseas. Although none of the proposed remedies are easy fixes, the book’s main message—that manufacturing is critical to the future of American prosperity—is gaining traction among economic observers. The chapters are long and densely packed, and McCormack wisely gives each chapter a synopsis for quick reference.
A sophisticated, persuasive argument that “Made in America” means a stronger America.Pub Date: July 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-0989257411
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Alliance for American Manufacturing
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
Necessarily swift and adumbrative as well as inclusive, focused, and graceful.
A light-speed tour of (mostly) Western poetry, from the 4,000-year-old Gilgamesh to the work of Australian poet Les Murray, who died in 2019.
In the latest entry in the publisher’s Little Histories series, Carey, an emeritus professor at Oxford whose books include What Good Are the Arts? and The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books, offers a quick definition of poetry—“relates to language as music relates to noise. It is language made special”—before diving in to poetry’s vast history. In most chapters, the author deals with only a few writers, but as the narrative progresses, he finds himself forced to deal with far more than a handful. In his chapter on 20th-century political poets, for example, he talks about 14 writers in seven pages. Carey displays a determination to inform us about who the best poets were—and what their best poems were. The word “greatest” appears continually; Chaucer was “the greatest medieval English poet,” and Langston Hughes was “the greatest male poet” of the Harlem Renaissance. For readers who need a refresher—or suggestions for the nightstand—Carey provides the best-known names and the most celebrated poems, including Paradise Lost (about which the author has written extensively), “Kubla Khan,” “Ozymandias,” “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads, which “changed the course of English poetry.” Carey explains some poetic technique (Hopkins’ “sprung rhythm”) and pauses occasionally to provide autobiographical tidbits—e.g., John Masefield, who wrote the famous “Sea Fever,” “hated the sea.” We learn, as well, about the sexuality of some poets (Auden was bisexual), and, especially later on, Carey discusses the demons that drove some of them, Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath among them. Refreshingly, he includes many women in the volume—all the way back to Sappho—and has especially kind words for Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop, who share a chapter.
Necessarily swift and adumbrative as well as inclusive, focused, and graceful.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-23222-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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