Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work

$21.95

Order Code: SCAS

Author: Matthew B. Crawford

Shop Class as Soulcraft brings alive an experience that was once quite common, but now seems to be receding from society: making and fixing things. 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.

About the Author

Matthew B. Crawford is a philosopher and mechanic. He has a Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Chicago and served as a postdoctoral fellow on its committee on Social Thought. He is currently a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. He also owns and operates Shockoe Moto, an independent motorcycle repair shop in Richmond, Virginia.

A Brief Case for the Useful Arts
The Separation of Thinking from Doing
To Be Master of One’s Own Stuff
The Education of a Gearhead: From Amateur to Professional
The Contradictions of the Cubicle
Thinking as Doing
Work, Leisure, and Full Engagement

Product Detail

Hardcover: 256 pages

Format: 5.8 by 8.2 inches, black and white illustrations

Customer & Editorial Reviews:

Reviewer: Motorcycle Consumer News, October 2009

Date Added: Friday 06 November, 2009

I’m intimidated by the task of trying to capture something of this book’s significance in a few short paragraphs. I wouldn’t even try if not for my conviction that, having been lucky enough to discover such a wonderful book, I simply must alert others who are sure to find it as thought-provoking, comforting and enlightening as I did. It’s really that good.

...In other words, this is a book that belongs in the hands of MCN readers.

Reviewer: Barry Dwernychuk

Date Added: Tuesday 06 October, 2009

I bought Crawford's book after reading the New York Times article that was published before the book was released. While the NYT article was written in a thoughtful, approachable and extremely readable style, the book is largely written in the stiff, often stilted style of a typical academic treatise. Crawford may have left academia to earn his living (for a while, at least), but he did not leave its literary conventions. It's a pity that his profound arguments about the value of work and our sadly skewed views of what the workplace should be are hobbled by the leaden writing style. If you can slog your way through, there's a lot here to think about, a lot of valuable insight into what's right and wrong with work and our attitudes towards it. I enjoyed the book but I wish it had been written by Crawford-the-mechanic instead of Crawford-the-academic.