Book Review

Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade

Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade

Purpose of the Review

The purpose of writing this book review is to understand the arguments. The subject area of the book being reviewed is economics. Therefore, this review will be helpful in understanding the concepts of economics that have been explored by the author in the book.

Book Title and Author's Name

The title of the book is “Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade.” The author of the book is Pietra Rivoli. The book was published in 2009 by John Wiley & Sons. The subject area of the book is Business and Economics. The author of the book, Pietra Rivoli, is a Professor at Georgetown University. The author's areas of specialization include social issues in business, international business, and finance (Rivoli, 2009).

The Premise of the Book

The book is inspired by the personal experience of the author in the year 1999. In 1999, the author witnessed a crowd of as many as 100 students who were gathered at Georgetown University. The students were protesting against globalization. One member of the crowd was questioning the production of t-shirts. The activist was referring to child labor in less developed countries. The questions of that activist prompted the author to track manufacturing of a t-shirt. Therefore, she bought a t-shirt of $6 from Florida. After this, she decided to track the journey of the t-shirt in order to find the answers of questions and to understand global trade. The author tracked the manufacturing of the t-shirt along the value chain.

Book Review

Critical Points Discussed in the Book

Following are the critical points that have been discussed in this book:

Importance of cotton as a critical world commodity

History of cotton production in the United States

Discussion of Chinese Textile Mills

The United States' textile protectionism

Recycling of clothing in the United States.

The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy has discussed different economic and political lessons with the help of an example of a t-shirt. In the book, Professor Pietra Rivoli has discussed the adventurous story of a six-dollar shirt. The shirt of the t-shirt started from a West Texas cotton field and ended at a clothing market in Africa. Meanwhile, the t-shirt also travelled to Washington. By using the example of the t-shirt, the writer discussed the international trade. According to the author, international trade has been simplified by the critics of globalization. In real, international trade is not a simple concept but it is a long journey of a product.

In order to analyze different stages of international trade associated with her t-shirt, the writer came across with different concepts. The aim of the author was to understand and explain the benefits of global free trades and anti-globalization markets. However, during the process, the writer realized that free ...