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  • Published: 6 May 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141954882
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

The Case for Working with Your Hands

Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good



The inspirational New York Times bestseller that revolutionises our understanding of what a good working life can be

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.

  • Published: 6 May 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141954882
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

About the author

Matthew Crawford

Matthew Crawford is the author of The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or Why Office Work Is Bad For Us and Fixing Things Feels Good and The World Beyond Your Head: How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction, which have been translated around the world. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Independent, Wall Street Journal as well as numerous magazines and journals. Matthew is a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, lectures internationally and runs a motorcyle repair shop.

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