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An Inquiry Into the Value of Work
Penguin Press
June 2009
On Sale: May 29, 2009
320 pages
ISBN: 1594202230
EAN: 9781594202230
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A philosopher / mechanic destroys the pretensions of the
high- prestige workplace and makes an irresistible case for
working with one’s hands Shop Class as Soulcraft brings alive an experience that was
once quite common, but now seems to be receding from
society—the experience of making and fixing things with our
hands. Those of us who sit in an office often feel a lack of
connection to the material world, a sense of loss, and find
it difficult to say exactly what we do all day. For anyone
who felt hustled off to college, then to the cubicle,
against their own inclinations and natural bents, Shop Class
as Soulcraft seeks to restore the honor of the manual trades
as a life worth choosing. On both economic and psychological grounds, Crawford
questions the educational imperative of turning everyone
into a "knowledge worker," based on a misguided separation
of thinking from doing, the work of the hand from that of
the mind. Crawford shows us how such a partition, which
began a century ago with the assembly line, degrades work
for those on both sides of the divide. But Crawford offers good news as well: the manual trades are
very different from the assembly line, and from dumbed-down
white collar work as well. They require careful thinking and
are punctuated by moments of genuine pleasure. Based on his
own experience as an electrician and mechanic, Crawford
makes a case for the intrinsic satisfactions and cognitive
challenges of manual work. The work of builders and
mechanics is secure; it cannot be outsourced, and it cannot
be made obsolete. Such work ties us to the local communities
in which we live, and instills the pride that comes from
doing work that is genuinely useful. A wholly original
debut, Shop Class as Soulcraft offers a passionate call for
self-reliance and a moving reflection on how we can live
concretely in an ever more abstract world.
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