Industrial Sunset Chapter Summary
Book Review
< Industrial Sunset >
The book ‘Industrial Sunset’ traces and compares the processes of industrial transformation in Canada and the United States. It explains the main issues in the history and the politics of plant closings during the period beginning and ending in the recession between 1969 and 1984 (High, 2003, p. 4). High (2003), the author of the book, argues:
… the Great Disruption was filtered through national contexts. In the United States, the fears and anxieties engendered by industrial transformation turned workers into metaphorical gypsies, encamped on an emptied industrial landscape. Plant closing opponents in the United States proved unable to save factories from closing or to stop the displacement. (p. 11)
On the other hand, in Canada, opponents of plant closings ‘were able to marshal nationalist claims as rhetorical weapons against plant shutdowns and lobbying tools. Canadian politicians were convinced to legislate …show more content…
However, when I put myself into the situation and think about what I would do if I were in the workers’ shoes, I think I would have done the same. In the situation, the workers were completely blind about the closure because there is no way that they could sense it. Amongst the workers, one of the workers spent more than 30 years working at the same workplace and has been waiting for the time when he will retire and pursue the dreams he has planned to do for himself and with his family (High, 2003). There was another worker, who was a single mom and has been working hard to support her children, and out of a sudden, she gets laid-off even though she had done nothing wrong (High, 2003). High (2003) also talks about family—the workplace was not just a place they worked. It was their community, people they knew, where their job became like something more of themselves. And it was
< Industrial Sunset >
The book ‘Industrial Sunset’ traces and compares the processes of industrial transformation in Canada and the United States. It explains the main issues in the history and the politics of plant closings during the period beginning and ending in the recession between 1969 and 1984 (High, 2003, p. 4). High (2003), the author of the book, argues:
… the Great Disruption was filtered through national contexts. In the United States, the fears and anxieties engendered by industrial transformation turned workers into metaphorical gypsies, encamped on an emptied industrial landscape. Plant closing opponents in the United States proved unable to save factories from closing or to stop the displacement. (p. 11)
On the other hand, in Canada, opponents of plant closings ‘were able to marshal nationalist claims as rhetorical weapons against plant shutdowns and lobbying tools. Canadian politicians were convinced to legislate …show more content…
However, when I put myself into the situation and think about what I would do if I were in the workers’ shoes, I think I would have done the same. In the situation, the workers were completely blind about the closure because there is no way that they could sense it. Amongst the workers, one of the workers spent more than 30 years working at the same workplace and has been waiting for the time when he will retire and pursue the dreams he has planned to do for himself and with his family (High, 2003). There was another worker, who was a single mom and has been working hard to support her children, and out of a sudden, she gets laid-off even though she had done nothing wrong (High, 2003). High (2003) also talks about family—the workplace was not just a place they worked. It was their community, people they knew, where their job became like something more of themselves. And it was