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Yale University Press
April 2008
On Sale: March 28, 2008
336 pages
ISBN: 0300119097
EAN: 9780300119091
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Defining craftsmanship far more broadly than βskilled manual labor,β Richard Sennett maintains that the computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen engage in a craftsmanβs work. Craftsmanship names the basic human impulse to do a job well for its own sake, says the author, and good craftsmanship involves developing skills and focusing on the work rather than ourselves. In this thought-provoking book, one of our most distinguished public intellectuals explores the work of craftsmen past and present, identifies deep connections between material consciousness and ethical values, and challenges received ideas about what constitutes good work in todayβs world.
The Craftsman engages the many dimensions of skillβfrom the technical demands to the obsessive energy required to do good work. Craftsmanship leads Sennett across time and space, from ancient Roman brickmakers to Renaissance goldsmiths to the printing presses of Enlightenment Paris and the factories of industrial London; in the modern world he explores what experiences of good work are shared by computer programmers, nurses and doctors, musicians, glassblowers, and cooks. Unique in the scope of his thinking, Sennett expands previous notions of crafts and craftsmen and apprises us of the surprising extent to which we can learn about ourselves through the labor of making physical things.
 Media BuzzDiane Rehm Show - NPR - March 11, 2008
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