The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good

The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good
ISBN-10
0141954884
ISBN-13
9780141954882
Category
Philosophy
Pages
256
Language
English
Published
2010-05-06
Publisher
Penguin UK
Author
Matthew Crawford

Description

Why do some jobs offer fulfilment while others leave us frustrated? Why do we so often think of our working selves as separate from our 'true' selves? Over the course of the twentieth century, we have separated mental work from manual labour, replacing the workshop with either the office cubicle or the factory line. In this inspiring and persuasive book, Matthew Crawford explores the dangers of this false distinction and presents instead the case for working with your hands. He brings to life the immense psychological and intellectual satisfactions of making and fixing things, explores the moral benefits of a technical education and, at a time when jobs are increasingly being outsourced over the internet, argues that the skilled manual trades may be one of the few sure paths to a good living. Drawing on the work of our greatest thinkers, from Aristotle to Heidegger, from Karl Marx to Iris Murdoch, as well as on his own experiences as an electrician and motorcycle mechanic, Crawford delivers a radical, timely and extremely enjoyable re-evaluation of our attitudes to work.

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