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The World in a T-Shirt In a three-part report inspired by the book The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli, NPR's Adam Davidson examines what a simple T-shirt can teach us about globalization and its impact on our everyday lives.
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The World in a T-Shirt

What a simple T-shirt can teach us about globalization's impact on our everyday lives.

U.S. Town's Economy Shifts Away from T-Shirt Business

Until recently, Florence, Ala., considered itself the T-shirt capital of the U.S. That was a few years ago, prior to a surge in cheap imports from China and other countries. Today, the T-shirt mills are all gone, along with all the jobs they once provided.

U.S. Town's Economy Shifts Away from T-Shirt Business

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Behind Shanghai's Boom Is a Simple T-Shirt

With the expiration of apparel quotas, China is expected to dominate the world T-shirt market. Many of those T-shirts are sewn in factories in and around Shanghai, China's busiest and fastest-growing city.

Behind Shanghai's Boom Is a Simple T-Shirt

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After 200 Years, U.S. Remains King of Cotton

Much of the world's cotton comes from Texas, even though it's not a particularly great place to grow the crop. Big subsidies and heavy technology and R&D spending have helped the United States dominate the global cotton trade for two centuries.

After 200 Years, U.S. Remains King of Cotton

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