The New York Times Book Review
The photographs capture the shock, uncertainty and despair of what Davidson calls the 'human spirit... downsized.'... Bamberger preserves the spirit of its employees and their pride in their craft. Davidson's eloquent text describes, in concise, vivid detail, the stories of five employees who 'represent a cross section of the American work force.' An unflinchingly fair analysis. Hard-edged and realistic. "Closing"... issues a bold challenge to 'business as usual.'


The Economist
Here is a stupendous book, a complete answer to any who believe that all that counts in a company is its bottom line, and that the only people with a stake in it are its shareholders.


USA Today
Blending thoughtful text and 98 photographs, "Closing" is the best kind of documentary--telling a specific story about specific people in a larger context that means something....In a better world, "closing" would be on the reading lists of every corporate board and business school.


From Booklist
Davidson, who wrote 36 Views of Mount Fuji (1993) and coedited The Oxford Book of Women's Writing in the United States (1995), offers thoughtful commentary, including interviews with six individuals, and Bamberger supplies probing photographs; together, they create a telling portrait of the last six months of the White Furniture Company of Mebane, North Carolina. A 111-year-old firm specializing in high-quality reproduction antiques, White was family owned until 1985 and employed more than 200 people. Davidson researched economic factors and the furniture industry and talked with a range of former White employees (a mill worker, shop-floor supervisors, an executive assistant, and the CEO who decided to close the plant). Bamberger spent days at the factory in its final months, capturing on film the commitment and skill of these six and other workers, as well as their reactions to the elimination of jobs many had held for decades. An eloquent essay on the human cost of downsizing and globalization. Mary Carroll


Joyce Carol Oates
A beautifully composed elegy of words and images celebrating a vanishing way of life. These understated, evocative photographs by Bill Bamburger and this poetic text by Cathy N. Davidson ask, in effect, 'Does one have to sell one's soul in order to survive in contemporary America?'


Lee Smith
Eloquent and elegaic, Closing is a testament to the human spirit and to the dignity and importance of work.


The Nation, Kim Phillips-Fein
...[a] handsome book ... The book isn't particularly scholarly; Davidson's writing, though sometimes affecting, is often quite simplistic, especially when it comes to economics. But the book offers an unusual glimpse into the lives of working-class Americans, and by providing a close study of one plant closing, it subtly debunks some trendy myths about deindustrialization....


Brightleaf, Raleigh, NC, David Cecelski, December 1998
Cathy Davidson's writing is clear-sighted and intelligent and establishes why this is a national, indeed an international story. It is not artful prose; there is not a trace of existential angst to it, thank goodness. If only James Agee had written about the Alabama tenant farmers in the same way....And in all these photographs, there is a powerful intimacy with the photographer, the kind of intimacy only achieved by a person who has showed his seriousness, earned trust, staked out a life in common with the people he is portraying. This is "Closing's" real achievement: the making relevant of documentary art in daily life.


Duke Magazine, Paul Baerman, November-December 1998
If there are executives out there who are facing the seemingly inexorable logic of plant closings, they could do worse than to spend a few hours with this book. Not that it would necessarily change minds, but that it might help them walk into it with their eyes open. And if they haven't got time to read it, just looking at the photos will do.


Book Description
The story of the White Furniture Company--a century-old, family-owned business that was bought out by a huge corporate conglomerate and later closed--puts a human face on the economic realities of the 1990s. Bill Bamberger took his revealing and powerful photographs during the last four months of operation on the factory floor, working side by side with the White employees. Cathy Davidson's text focuses on six people who represent every economic level in the American workforce: CEO, executive assistant, middle manager, supervisor, skilled artisan, and manual laborer. All speak the same language of craft, commitment, and community.


About the Author
Bill Bamberger's work has been widely published and exhibited across the country. A recipient of the Lyndhurst Prize, he teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lives in Mebane, North Carolina. Cathy Davidson is the author and editor of over a dozen books and a recipient of numerous grants and fellowships. Past president of the American Studies Association, she is currently Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English at Duke University. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The story of the White Furniture Company - a century-old, family-owned business that was bought out by a huge corporate conglomerate and later closed - puts a human face on the economic realities of the 1990s. Bill Bamberger took his revealing and powerful photographs during the last four months of operation on the factory floor, working side by side with the White employees. Cathy N. Davidson's text focuses on six people who represent every economic level in the American workforce: a CEO, an executive assistant, a middle manager, a supervisor, a skilled artisan, and a manual laborer. All speak the same language of craft, commitment, and community.

FROM THE CRITICS

Stephanie Sun

Hard-edged and realistic, Closing offers no sugar-coated solutions. Instead...it issues a bold challenge to "business as usual." -- New York Times Book Review

Kim Phillips-Fein