I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Am interesting historical novel. Recommend for history buffs out there.

I love history and the only thing I love even more in very niche, unknown history. A Michigan fabric factory is definitely up my alley than. This book is an interesting look into working women's lives and them trying to unionize. A great read for anyone interested in women's history.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

An amazing journey into not only the history of the undergarments produced by the Gossard Girls (and men, though the name doesn't seem to include them) and how the styles changed, but also the many, many, many different personal tales of what the company meant to these individuals and how they remember different details from that time period, saved and transcribed here for all to know so that those details don't get lost in history, as they almost had. Full of research and really, letting the people who worked there have their voices heard, was just amazing to read snippets of their stories. Not that this changes any rating of the book, but I wish there was a picture included of the infamous quilt made from the leftover material as well. That would have been interesting to see. Such a fascinating story well worth reading.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

I really enjoyed this book, and the look into the lives of the amazing Gossard Girls! If you have a love of history, vintage fashion, sewing, unions, and stories of the women who have gone before us, you'll enjoy this book. It's brimming with extensive details of how life at the factory was, the attempts to unionize, and the impact that the factory had on it's community. Clearly well researched, a real gem. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read an advance copy.

Each chapter we hear from former employees, children of former employees, and members of the communities who remember the Goddard Girls. I think it was interesting because we get to hear firsthand how the factory jobs affected the community and their economy!

I was looking forward to this as someone from Michigan and learning a piece of history I didn’t know anything about. However I found the book to be very dry and it just didn’t hold my attention. It felt more like a textbook for school and it will definitely be for a very select audience.

This book was received from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

We Kept Our Towns Going tells the stories of the Gossard corset and bra factories in Ishpeming and Gwinn, Michigan. Moving chronologically, Wong follows the factories through their years of operation and beyond. The importance of these factories in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and beyond is shown through oral histories of individuals who worked or lived near the Gossard factories. This is a history of labor in an area not usually focused on, and Wong tells the story well.

Wong takes us through all the details of production in the Gossard shops. She describes the layout of the building; what went on on each floor; how the machines worked and how the women helped keep them working; how the materials were brought in and finished garments went out. Wong also uses the women's recollections to show how the different work structures operated, from how piecework worked and how it was paid out, to the office workers and truckers.

The communities in Michigan’s UP were mainly centered around mining. Wong shows how this helped create the perfect environment for the Gossard factories to succeed in. Miners were often laid off for periods at a time, and the wives and daughters of the miners wanted or needed to help their families. The Gossard was perfect for these women.

Throughout each chapter we hear from former employees, children of former employees, other members of the communities, etc. to help us better understand the importance of the factories to their communities. Wong highlights the economic benefits to families and the towns from the first opening in the 1920s until the final closure in 1976.

The longest chapter in the book highlights the lead up to unionization of the Gossard plants and the strike that took place in 1949. I fully admit I didn’t quite follow all of the strike negotiations. Whether that is due to the text lacking or my own gap in understanding unions though, I’m not sure.

The last chapters show the changing world of the 1960s and 1970s and the slow decline in the Gossard’s work in the UP. Fashions changed and the garments produced were no longer in fashion. While the company tried to move with the times, ultimately the last Gossard factory in the UP closed in the late 1970s. Wong then takes us through what happened to the factory building, the workers, and the towns.

The story of the Gossard factories is bookended by the story of a quilt, made from Gossard fabric and made to highlight the women and the factories that supported the towns for over half a century. The quilt can be seen online at: https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=12-8-6495

Overall this is a fascinating story of a little told place and job. The oral histories are what makes the book stand out. The women, and some men, so clearly loved their jobs and what those jobs did for their communities. These stories should be more well known, and with Wong’s book, they can be, if only a little bit more.

This title focuses on the Gossard lingerie company, specifically its plants in Ishpeming and Gwinn, Michigan, in the cold expanse of the Upper Peninsula, and it's importance to the small communities where the plants were located. Told through many oral history interviews of both the workers and, in some cases, their children, the book chronicles the impact these plants had on the lives of very rural communities with little other industry to support the local residents. Spanning most of the 20th century, from the opening of the plants in 1920 through their closer in the late 1970s, this book examines changing women's roles, as well as union and labor movements during that time period.

I most enjoyed the transcriptions of the interviews with the women who worked in the factories. At a time when most women would have been stay-at-home wives and mothers, the Gossard company allowed them to have a place to earn money to support their families in an uncertain labor climate for their husbands. Many of the Gossard workers had husbands who were laid off from the mines (which were the only other local industry of any size), were widows trying to support themselves and their children, or younger women who worked to support their parents and siblings. The money that the Gossard factory workers were able to send back into their local economies also cannot be understated and the book's title perfectly sums up the large impact that these factories had on the women, their families and those of the small shops in the towns. The factories were also like big extended families where women made life-long friendships, and where people supported each other with advice, baby-sitting, or life lessons. Various perks before unionization included hot meals at lunchtime, summer cookouts and baseball games, and a good rate of pay for fast, hard workers.

While the story of unionization was an important one for the history of the factories themselves, I found that chapter dry and hard to engage with. I also wished that the author had been able to include photographs of the women she interviewed, the buildings themselves and the changing styles the factories produced to help really bring this story to life. I think the book is likely not to appeal to a broad-range audience, as it is very place-specific (and not everyone even knows where/what the UP is), but will be a helpful resource for historians interested in learning more about women's labor in the early 20th century.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is an in-depth look at the women, and some men, who kept the Gossard undergarment factories running. These factories we're a huge asset to the small mining towns. The women had a great opportunity to bring in income for their families and it gave many teenage girls a good job right out of high school. It is amazing how many years some of these women worked there, essentially making it their career.
The beginning of the unions and the struggles to unionize we're interesting parts in this book too.

We Kept Our Towns Going is a fascinating and engaging look at the manufacture of women's undergarments in two factories in Michigan in the early twentieth century. The book covers the importance of the industry in a rural area, the importance of the factories for providing work- and especially financial independence for the local women, and the place of these factories in the history of the women's labour movement. 
 Phyllis Wong's history is based predominately on oral history, including interviews undertaken for the book. She treats these stories with respect and sensitivity and weaves them into a wider history of the area and period. 
The book follows a generally logical chronology and brings to life the various jobs and work undertaken at the factory. She highlights the importance of the social relationships between women workers, and emphasizes the support these women provided each other- but also the impact of favouristim in the workplace. Many of the workers viewed the factory and staff as a 'family'  and Wong carefully interweaves narratives of workers, their children and those who knew them. She shows how supportive and considerate managers created initiatives such as providing "free nutritious" meals to workers to help their incomes go further in the wartime years, and contrasts this with how pro-union workers saw this as an attempt to stop unionizing. 
Chapter 4 which focusses on the 1940s, particularly focusing on a 4 month long strike which was rare as a women's pro-union strike, takes up a significant portion of the book, provides an engaging discussion on the strike and its place in the women's labour movement. She touches on stories of workers who were both pro and anti union, and highlights how the strike and union were perceived- particularly by those who didn't really understand the union or have an opinion. However throughout the book there were moments where I wish she would have discussed some of the contrasts of opinions and experiences- for instance she touches on several people who continued to work during the strike and were verbally abused (or physically threatened), yet once staff went back to work, the worker's got along again. There is little discussion of this disconnect. Although she does provide an understanding of the effects of this on one worker- one supervisor who was well liked and respected- yet as they continued to work during the strike people would spit and yell at them- they ended up having to be transferred during the strain. 
The book is short and sweet, and was an interested glimpse of the lives of these women. I think there was potential for some ideas to be pursued further, but on the whole it was a satisfying snapshot of a rural community. 
My thanks to Netgalley and Michigan State University Press for providing me with a copy.

Many years ago, we took a side route through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to drive through the town of Gwinn. One of the saints of our church had been born and raised there. I knew little else about the town.

Gwinn had been built for the mining company workers, a ‘model’ town, a planned town. About the time of our friend’s birth, a building was taken over by the H. W. Gossard company, a manufacturer of ladies undergarments. Gossard already had a factory in Ishpeming. The two factories had a huge impact on local economics. Gossard jobs allowed women to support their families with extra income, or while their mining husbands were out of work, or to save money before marriage. Many girls left school to work and help out the family.

Gossard treated the workers well, even offering free, hot lunches. The piecework sewing was demanding, and physically abusive, but the Gossard Girls were proud of their work and their contribution. They were like ‘family’.

When union organizers arrived, it took years to generate support for a union. It did accomplish a pay raise, but the nature of the work also altered. Over time, the isolated location of the factories became a burden, with transportation costs rising in the 1970s. The factories were closed.

We Kept Our Towns Going by Phyllis Michael Wong is the story of the factories and the Gossard Girls, filled with detailed interviews with the women. The wealth of information may be overwhelming for the casual reader, but for those interested in learning in depth about the nature of the factory work, the growth of unions, and the lives of ordinary working women will appreciate this book. Wong interviewed scores of women who talk about the details of their working lives, rich in details that offer a deep look into decades of women’s history.

I was particularly interested in the use of fabric scraps related in the book. Women made miniature bras for boys to hang in their cars! And, after the factories closed, a stash of fabric scraps were made into quilts! You can find them documented on the Michigan State University Museum Quilt Index.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.