Boom, bust, exodus : the Rust Belt, the Maquilas, and a tale of two cities / Chad Broughton.
Broughton, Chad, author.
2015
HC108.G26 B76 2015
Available Online

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Title Boom, bust, exodus : the Rust Belt, the Maquilas, and a tale of two cities / Chad Broughton.
Author Broughton, Chad, author.
ISBN 9780199765614
9780199335961 (electronic book)
Published New York, New York : Oxford University Press, [2015]
Copyright ©2015
Language English
Description 1 online resource (425 pages) : illustrations
Call Number HC108.G26 B76 2015
Dewey Decimal Classification 330.9773/49
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"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Boom, bust, exodus : the Rust Belt, the Maquilas, and a tale of two cities.
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Prologue
Boom Days in the Appliance City
Life in the Magic Valley
A New Era for an American Classic
The Red-headed Stepchild
Padre Mike and Nafta Man
Resist, Reinvent, Resent
"Sin Maíz, No Hay País"
"The End is HERE!"
The Mike Allen Question
Chiles, Coyotes, and Vanilla
Frogs, Mules, and Life after Maytag
"Esa es Mi Visión"
Looking North from Barra de Cazones
Getting Back to Work in the 'Burg
Hojas, Blackberries, and the Tortilla King
Treading Water in the Great Recession
Little Detroit, El Cartel, and Aguamiel
Epilogue.

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