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Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, by Matthew B. Crawford
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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.
- Sales Rank: #59611 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Penguin Press HC, The
- Published on: 2009-05-28
- Released on: 2009-05-28
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .83" w x 5.75" l, .85 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 256 pages
Features
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Philosopher and motorcycle repair-shop owner Crawford extols the value of making and fixing things in this masterful paean to what he calls manual competence, the ability to work with oneÖs hands. According to the author, our alienation from how our possessions are made and how they work takes many forms: the decline of shop class, the design of goods whose workings cannot be accessed by users (such as recent Mercedes models built without oil dipsticks) and the general disdain with which we regard the trades in our emerging information economy. Unlike todayÖs knowledge worker, whose work is often so abstract that standards of excellence cannot exist in many fields (consider corporate executives awarded bonuses as their companies sink into bankruptcy), the person who works with his or her hands submits to standards inherent in the work itself: the lights either turn on or they donÖt, the toilet flushes or it doesnÖt, the motorcycle roars or sputters. With wit and humor, the author deftly mixes the details of his own experience as a tradesman and then proprietor of a motorcycle repair shop with more philosophical considerations. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
We note that Publishers Weekly named Shop Class as Soulcraft one of the top ten books of 2009. Reviewers were clearly intrigued by Crawford's argument, but only a couple of them seemed fully persuaded. (The New York Times Book Review critic, for example, admitted to enjoying Crawford's manual work alongside his academic career.) But most critics, while praising the book's overall premise, seemed a little hesitant about fully embracing Shop Class as Soulcraft, perhaps because, as the New York Times reviewer observed, many of the author's personal preferences and quirks, such as Crawford's defense of dirty jokes, seem to impede his argument. However, it's hard not to be interested in a philosopher who, in a nation that privileges intellectual attainment, can also successfully replace a carburetor.
Review
"It's appropriate that [Shop Class as Soulcraft] arrives in May, the month when college seniors commence real life. Skip Dr. Seuss, or a tie from Vineyard Vines, and give them a copy for graduation.... It's not an insult to say that Shop Class is the best self-help book that I've ever read. Almost all works in the genre skip the "self" part and jump straight to the "help." Crawford rightly asks whether today's cubicle dweller even has a respectable self....It's kind of like Heidegger and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
-Slate
"Matt Crawford's remarkable book on the morality and metaphysics of the repairman looks into the reality of practical activity. It is a superb combination of testimony and reflection, and you can't put it down."
-Harvey Mansfield, Professor of Government, Harvard University
"Every once in a great while, a book will come along that's brilliant and true and perfect for its time. Matthew B. Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft is that kind of book, a prophetic and searching examination of what we've lost by ceasing to work with our hands-and how we can get it back. During this time of cultural anxiety and reckoning, when the conventional wisdom that has long driven our wealthy, sophisticated culture is foundering amid an economic and spiritual tempest, Crawford's liberating volume appears like a lifeboat on the horizon."
-Rod Dreher, author of Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots
"This is a deep exploration of craftsmanship by someone with real, hands-on knowledge. The book is also quirky, surprising, and sometimes quite moving."
-Richard Sennett, author of The Craftsman
"Matt Crawford has written a brave and indispensable book. By making a powerful case for the enduring value of the manual trades, Shop Class as Soulcraft offers a bracing alternative to the techno-babble that passes for conventional wisdom, and points the way to a profoundly necessary reconnection with the material world. No one who cares about the future of human work can afford to ignore this book."
-Jackson Lears, Editor in Chief, Raritan
"We are on the verge of a national renewal. It will have more depth and grace if we read Crawford's book carefully and take it to heart. He is a sharp theorist, a practicing mechanic, and a captivating writer."
-Albert Borgmann, author of Real American Ethics
"Shop Class as Soulcraft is easily the most compelling polemic since The Closing of the American Mind. Crawford offers a stunning indictment of the modern workplace, detailing the many ways it deadens our senses and saps our vitality. And he describes how our educational system has done violence to our true nature as 'homo faber'. Better still, Crawford points in the direction of a richer, more fulfilling way of life. This is a book that will endure."
-Reihan Salam, associate editor at The Atlantic, co-author of Grand New Party
"Crawford reveals the satisfactions of the active craftsman who cultivates his own judgment, rather than being a passive consumer subject to manipulated fantasies of individuality and creativity."
- Nathan Tarcov, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
Philosopher and motorcycle repair-shop owner Crawford extols the value of making and fixing things in this masterful paean to what he calls "manual competence," the ability to work with one's hands. According to the author, our alienation from how our possessions are made and how they work takes many forms: the decline of shop class, the design of goods whose workings cannot be accessed by users (such as recent Mercedes models built without oil dipsticks) and the general disdain with which we regard the trades in our emerging "information economy." Unlike today's "knowledge worker," whose work is often so abstract that standards of excellence cannot exist in many fields (consider corporate executives awarded bonuses as their companies sink into bankruptcy), the person who works with his or her hands submits to standards inherent in the work itself: the lights either turn on or they don't, the toilet flushes or it doesn't, the motorcycle roars or sputters. With wit and humor, the author deftly mixes the details of his own experience as a tradesman and then proprietor of a motorcycle repair shop with more philosophical considerations.
- Publishers Weekly, Starred review
Philosopher and motorcycle mechanic Crawford presents a fascinating, important analysis of the value of hard work and manufacturing. He reminds readers that in the 1990s vocational education (shop class) started to become a thing of the past as U.S. educators prepared students for the "knowledge revolution." Thus, an entire generation of American "thinkers" cannot, he says, do anything, and this is a threat to manufacturing, the fundamental backbone of economic development. Crawford makes real the experience of working with one's hands to make and fix things and the importance of skilled labor. His philosophical background is evident as he muses on how to live a pragmatic, concrete life in today's ever more abstract world and issues a clarion call for reviving trade and skill development classes in American preparatory schools. The result is inspired social criticism and deep personal exploration. Crawford's work will appeal to fans of Robert Pirsig's classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and should be required reading for all educational leaders. Highly recommended; Crawford's appreciation for various trades may intrigue readers with white collar jobs who wonder at the end of each day what they really accomplished.
- Library Journal
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
In Praise of Plumbing, or, Heidegger and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
By not me
I've read "Shop Class as Soulcraft" twice and have urged friends to read it, too. It's a super-interesting book, which draws on autobiography, phenomenology, and labor studies to make the argument that the manual trades are cognitively and morally superior to most white-collar "knowledge" work. Ironically, the argument is rather cerebral: the basic idea (or one of them anyway) is that manual workers are in touch with objective reality and must satisfy objective standards of excellence, whereas office workers spend much of their professional time managing perceptions of themselves. As someone who hated every hour I spent in an office drafting strategies, "talking points," and press guidance -- ephemeral performance art, at best -- the book spoke to me. (It also helped that I grew up in the SF Bay Area, like the author.)
Admittedly, the book has a few problems. As other Amazon reviewers have noted, the author makes sweeping generalizations on the basis of his two brief jobs in the "knowledge" sector and his readings of Jackall and Braverman. The book also has an underbaked, incomplete feel to it, as if the author had trouble working his ideas into a full-blown argument. And here and there there's a hint of reverse snobbery, as when the author writes knowingly of race tracks and grimy machinery while never letting his audience (made up overwhelmingly of white-collar book readers) forget that he has a PhD from the University of Chicago. Perhaps this makes him the last Renaissance Man. (Perhaps he drinks Dos Equis, too.)
However, the book is definitely on to something. It will stir up reflection and self-recognition in anyone who reads it seriously. I'm looking forward to the author's next work.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
If you care about kids, and our educational system, read this
By Woodchuck
Great book for educational leaders and elitists to read and reflect--This is an important book, giving a passioned and insightful view of shop class in a way that the intelligensia can respect---Crawford's educational training and experience at the U of Chicago give him the credibility to make this strong case for shop class, the creative and intelligent students who grow and thrive through their experience and the necessity for making it more available to all students. Too bad that shop class has the historical stigma of the "fringe" student or the student who doesn't fit into a "college track" education. Irony is, the college track isn't what it used to be and we have a shortage of young people who can actually do things and work with their hands and their minds at the same time.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Deeper look than I expected.
By reed karen
I'm a self-employed cabinetmaker with an MFA in Furniture Design from RISD, and, though I had liked what I heard in an interview with the author on NPR, I expected this book to be full of condescending romance about "Craft" with a capital C. I bought the book as ammunition in a dispute I'm having with my son's school over the termination of his metal shop class--they feel the students are better served by Computer courses. I got more than I bargained for. It's a great book, with very interesting personal observations combined with research into scary management trends, and an impressive knowledge in the areas of Sociology and economics. He makes a persuasive argument for what I've observed empirically: that there are very bright people in the trades, and that the trades can be satisfying intellectually, emotionally and financially. That you can find 'meaning' in the trades that can be elusive in much of the white collar world, and that working with your hands doesn't mean that you are not working with your head. The book has a lot of the Academy about it--in a good way--but it is also fun to read, and gives an accurate view from the trenches. Read it.
Some at my son's school are trying to reserve shop class for the bottom 10% of the class, and want them shipped to a remote vocational school for the privilege--basically writing them off. I'm going to send copies of this book to all the members of the school board.
Reed Karen
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