Ruth Milkman's Farewell to the Factory examines what happened when General Motors closed its Linden, New Jersey assembly plant and offered workers buyouts to retire or relocate. Milkman, a labor sociologist at CUNY, conducted interviews with workers before and after the plant closure, capturing their experiences of industrial work, their views on the buyout decision, and their post-factory lives. The book challenges assumptions about deindustrialization's victims. These workers were well-paid and unionized, but the work was dangerous, tedious, and closely monitored. Many welcomed the chance to leave; others mourned the loss of community and identity. Milkman is attentive to how gender and race shaped experiences, examining how women and minorities navigated the shop floor's hierarchies. Farewell to the Factory is a model of worker-centered labor studies, letting workers speak in their own voices rather than treating them as data points. Milkman analyzes their varied understandings of freedom, dignity, and security, showing how workers could simultaneously hate their jobs and fight to keep them. The book complicates nostalgic narratives about manufacturing while acknowledging what was lost when industrial jobs disappeared. Essential reading for understanding deindustrialization's human dimensions and the complex meanings of work in American life.