To prepare for writing this ethnography, Shehata (Arab Politics, Georgetown University) spent a year working as a winding machine operator in Egypt--experience that lends particular weight to this study of workers' lives in two large textile factories in Alexandria. The author argues that shop floor culture and the social organization of production in those factories--company rules and procedures, hierarchy, and relations of authority--profoundly affect what it means to be a "worker" and how that identity is understood. Shehata also shows how the production of wool and cotton textiles is, simultaneously, the production of categories of identity, patterns of human interaction, and understandings of the self and others. The author's unique view of shop floor life and his uncluttered writing style make this book a standout among other recent ethnographies. Annotation ⓒ2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)