Work
A History of How We Spend Our Time
1st Edition
Published on 2. September 2021
464 pages
978-1-5266-4638-5 (ISBN)
Description
_______________
'A fascinating exploration that challenges our basic assumptions of what work means' - Yuval Noah Harari
'There is eminently underlinable stuff on most pages ... Fascinating' - The Times
'One of those few books that will turn your customary ways of thinking upside down' - Susan Cain
'Illuminating' - New Statesman
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A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work, from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present
The work we do brings us meaning, moulds our values, determines our social status and dictates how we spend most of our time. But this wasn't always the case: for 95% of our species' history, work held a radically different importance.
How, then, did work become the central organisational principle of our societies? How did it transform our bodies, our environments, our views on equality and our sense of time? And why, in a time of material abundance, are we working more than ever before?
'A fascinating exploration that challenges our basic assumptions of what work means' - Yuval Noah Harari
'There is eminently underlinable stuff on most pages ... Fascinating' - The Times
'One of those few books that will turn your customary ways of thinking upside down' - Susan Cain
'Illuminating' - New Statesman
_______________
A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work, from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present
The work we do brings us meaning, moulds our values, determines our social status and dictates how we spend most of our time. But this wasn't always the case: for 95% of our species' history, work held a radically different importance.
How, then, did work become the central organisational principle of our societies? How did it transform our bodies, our environments, our views on equality and our sense of time? And why, in a time of material abundance, are we working more than ever before?
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
ISBN-13
978-1-5266-4638-5 (9781526646385)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
James Suzman is an anthropologist specialising in the Khoisan peoples of southern Africa. A recipient of the Smuts Commonwealth Fellowship in African Studies at Cambridge University, he is now the director of Anthropos Ltd, a think tank that applies anthropological methods to solving contemporary social and economic problems. He has written for publications including the New York Times, the Observer, the Guardian, the New Statesman and the Independent, and has advised organisations including the Foreign Office, the World Bank and the European Commission. He lives in Cambridge.
Content
- Cover
- Series
- Title
- Copyright
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part One In the Beginning
- 1 To Live is to Work
- 2 Idle Hands and Busy Beaks
- 3 Tools and Skills
- 4 Fire's Other Gifts
- Part Two The Porvident Environment
- 5 'The Original Affluent Society'
- 6 Ghosts in the Forest
- Part Three Toiling in the Fields
- 7 Leaping off the Edge
- 8 Feasts and Famines
- 9 Time is Money
- 10 The First Machines
- Part Four Creatures of the Coty
- 11 The Bright Lights
- 12 The Malady of Infinite Aspiration
- 13 Top Talent
- 14 The Death of a Salaryman
- 15 The New Disease
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Acknowledgements
- Index
