Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work
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- ISBN13: 9781594202230
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
A philosopher / mechanic destroys the pretensions of the high- prestige workplace and makes an irresistible case for effective with one’s hands
Shop Class as Soulcraft brings alive an experience that was once reasonably common, but now seems to be receding from society-the experience of building and fitting things with our hands. Persons of us who sit in an office regularly feel a lack of tie to the material world, a sense of loss, and find it hard 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 started a century ago with the assembly line, degrades work for persons on both sides of the apportion.
But Crawford offers excellent 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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It only took me to page 13 or something of the introduction to feel, as a female, excluded from this book.
When Crawford, writing in the 21st Century, uses “man” as in “Man wants to feel ownership of what he possesses,” i.e. as a supposedly gender-neutral term, he seems either to be clueless re: P.C. language or to simply not care that he is not including women.
The leader is educated, having earned postgraduate degrees (I don’t remember if just a Master’s or a PhD in political philosophy or something), and shows in this book that he is fully able to write “academese,” so the exclusion of females feels pretty intentional.
(By the way, I reflect the physicality of housework would have been an appealing inclusion in this book. Does an office worker’s attitude toward the cubicle change depending on whether they do or don’t also have to do all the physical work in their home?)
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
This leader seems to be just another professional literary that wants people to be aware of the life choice he made. Rumor has it that the work itself is not rewarding enough and he want to brag a small or his choice does not allow him the spending money for the life he is used to so he is hoping for some book sales. The leader has a theme that is like education. Most will say that it is right that these are very vital things but will not change the situation or place more money into improving the situation. The book tends to ramble and repeat itself. Go back into your garage and keep silent. Manual laborors do not need you giving them a terrible name.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Caveat – I have not read the book. I heard the leader speak and answer questions. When pushed, he admitted that his wife works for a company which provides health care for herself and their family tree. He admitted that alone, he would not have access to health care. Entrepreneurship, whether in fitting motorcycles or fitting computers, comes with the same universal responsibilities persons of us who are not independently wealthy share – the responsibility to feed, clothe and shelter (and provide health care for) ourselves and our dependents. This book appears to elevate something rather indefinable and completely out-of-reach of most effective stiffs – a self-defined “satisfaction” gained from the same work which provides us with our livlihood. I would wager that only a very tiny percentage of the population has attained this indefinable “something”. Our work lives do not have to define us as people, IMHO.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This was a gift. I was forced to rate this itim and cannot proide a rating because I have never nor seen nor read it ! You need a provision for gifts.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I could be sitting in my cubicle at work bored out of my gourd – my only saving grace is that I can review problems encountered during my last Shade-Tree Mechanic episode with my ancient Chevy, or the planer that sits at home, longing to plane that gorgeous piece of wood just waiting to be stained by my home-made walnut stain and then buffed with my special beeswax and linseed oil wax. Somehow thinking and preparation about all that takes up the slack in my otherwise-dull “establishment” job.
So, with this mindest, I could easily identify with Crawford’s musings about being caught in the 9-5 cubicle rat-race while better things lie and beckon outside of that realm. He was able to transcend this and do what he likes — albeit using his fellowship monies to buy tools and additional equipment (hmmm…. our tax dollars at work — did he ever repay it?).
But, his philosophy wears thin after a while, rambles on far too long, and gets way too convoluted at times.
His musings were sometimes amusing, such as: “The Betty Crocker Police car” mindset he describes, and the fact that some of the dedicated hands-on crasftpeople are an “affront to the throwaway society” ring very right. So does his description of the warehouse where he set up shop, with its “underground economy, completely invisible from the street” — a very compelling and appealing world of its own…..!
As a name who enjoys effective with my hands, enjoys the feel of a combo wrench, a splat of Mystery Oil and the grit and determination needed to unbolt an ancient manifold, I loved his descriptions and musings re some of the rebuild and repair jobs he encountered with motorcycles and cars. And when he delved into the zen that sometimes accompanies the all ears mindset (nearly as a meditation) needed to get to the heart of the problem while really applying one’s being to the task at hand, it was at that time when the book really came together via a combination of philosophy, heart, soul and structure.
BTW “Wife Beater” is the misnomer agreed to a white undershirt (which should be called “white/tank/powerful undershirt”). After taking my mother too many times to the Urgent situation clinic at the local hospital, I really don’t care to encounter that word especially when it’s used to clarify an article of clothing.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5