| Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work |  | Author: Matthew B. Crawford
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Rating:  142 reviews
Sales Rank: 28,751
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 1594202230
Dewey Decimal Number: 331
EAN: 9781594202230
ASIN: 1594202230
Publication Date: May 28, 2009
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Product Description
A philosopher / mechanic destroys the pretensions of the high- prestige workplace and makes an irresistible case for working with one's hands
Shop Class as Soulcraft brings alive an experience that was once quite common, but now seems to be receding from society-the experience of making and fixing things with our hands. 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 100
 The psychology may be good, but some of the economics is risible August 29, 2010
ams
I have mixed feelings about the book. I understand what the author is driving at with regards to tacit knowledge, the way we really learn and understand things, the inadequacy of 3-ring-binder interchangeable approaches to doing certain jobs.
But I don't think he has a good appreciation for the real economics behind why mechanized work really dominated the economy. He is talking in one chapter about alienated workers on an assembly line producing cars that will be "ripped away by the capitalist class" never to be seen by the same class of people that built them. If anything, the exact opposite is the case!
The advent of the assembly line and mechanized labor produced some of the first cars that were made efficiently enough to be affordable by the laborers. On the other hand - hand-tooled vehicles, a modern example would be Porsches, can never be more than the playthings of the wealthy - no one else has the time to indulge such hobbies, or the ability to pay for that much skilled human attention.
Efficiency may end up producing mindless jobs that are crushingly dull, but it is also an extremely important economic good, in that it brings the price of objects once requiring thousands of skilled man-hours to produce into the reach of the middle class. We don't have flying cars because gen-av aircraft never developed beyond the low rate/skilled production stage. We do have personal computers, because their production, once done by PhDs hand-wire-wrapping each board, is now done automatically by robots.
 a few interesting stories padded with a lot of hot air August 25, 2010
cocktail sage (Oakland, CA USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The idea of the book is great, and I really enjoyed the few stories of problem diagnosis and solution - the stories of his actual work on actual bikes or actual cars are great stuff. Unfortunately that is less than 10% of the book. The philosophy, the quotations, citations and name dropping - My Eyes Glazed Over [MEGO] - it seemed at best pointless - and the philosophical writing is as artificial as the mechanical anecdotes were real. Glad I bought this as a remainder.
And yes, I went to engineering school. "mens et manus"
 Very good book, shows what wrong with education today August 4, 2010
Engine geek
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book very much. I has always said its a shame that the schools in this country have stopped teaching Industrial Arts. I don't care if you go on to be a heart surgeon you still have to know how to use hand tools !
Are we getting more stupid with every passing year? July 31, 2010
Brian Kodi
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
We have become a throwaway society. We discard items because it's more convenient to replace than to repair. In college, students become intellectually disengaged. Degrees are nothing more than credentials, and universities do little to cultivate knowledge. "Degradation of work is often based on efforts to replace the intuitive judgments of practitioners with rule following." p.232
Mr. Crawford has many valid gripes about the state of affairs since the industrial revolution, but his criticism of the knowledge sector is thinly based on his relatively brief work experience in this arena. Most of his professional background is in trade crafts such as wiring houses and repairing motorcycles.
In a mass production/consumption society, consistency, reliability and production speed are crucial to serving people's needs. In such a demanding environment, the more production is reliant on rules rather than individuality, the more efficiently this objective is realized. This point does not illude Mr. Crawford, as he is also critical of a mass consumption society. Ultimately, Mr. Crawford must favor a world population a fraction of the current 7 billion. Only then, can the world offer many of its citizens meaningful work that is personalized, where producers interact directly with customers rather than sit in cubes and conform to corporate social rules devoid of any value than advancing the interests of management. And if the world population does not decline significantly, at least shop classes should once again become a big part of K through 12 curriculum to give Mr. Crawford some relief of his angst.
As long as plumbers' cracks are visible to the naked eye, parents will prefer to put their kids through college to prepare them for a stake in the knowledge economy. Mr. Crawford's points are very observant and valid, but he is beating a dead horse. Change has been with us for some time, and the pace will continue to increase, and there is no looking back. Not all work is meaningful, but then again, one's profession shouldn't define him as a person. There is more to life than work, and satisfaction can come from hobbies such as repairing motorcycles, or investing time in family.
A voice for that nagging feeling.... July 28, 2010
Sharkhauler
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Architecture is under this squeeze! Absolutely right on!
The Architectural profession is being assaulted by "BIM" software - software that automatically generates building components - often from vendor supplied details. Young interns are taught to use "predefined" tools for complicated waterproofing and structural assemblies. Put a blank sheet of paper in front of some one & ask them to draw a simple head, jamb, or sill detail --- what do you get?
I rest my case!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 100
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