Fabrication : Essays on making things and making meaning

We are a nation of consumers. But where does what we buy come from? And how are these things made? In this meditation on manufacture, Susan Neville journeys to factories and plants in the heart of Indiana, looking for the sources of things.

From these journeys, Neville learns how the process of canning tomatoes is similar to the process of making metal caskets. Watches thousands of blue globes spin through a room like planets. Learns how, and by whom, and how well, and why things are made, whether they be dolls or insulin, gyroscopes or glass. And, by focusing on process and production, Neville gives us new, uncommon perspectives from which to view our world, and ourselves.