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

Summary (from the publisher): 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.

Review: This book was appealing on a personal level because as someone who works in an office type setting and who doesn't make or produce any tangible object, I find myself questioning the value of my time put in at work. Additionally, I work for a community college where a lot of discussions center around what we're providing for the students and the value of a liberal arts education v. learning a trade plus the growing question of what colleges are really teaching students. The bottom line is that most parents want their kids to go to college because it's the ticket to an open future, with numerous options available with a semi-generic bachelor's degree. However, Crawford points out that that is largely a pretentious notion because those who learn a trade can make just as much, if not more than us so-called "knowledge workers" and are probably more fulfilled while doing it. And we're facing a crisis as we continue to export our trade work because those of us like me, who aren't incredibly skilled with manual crafts, instantly are reduced to helplessness with the least breakdown of plumbing, electricity, internet, etc. while those who know about it are empowered and able to fix it and move along with their day. Ultimately, this book still leaves me conflicted concerning America's reliance on millions of knowledge workers and wondering how I can make my own livelihood more concrete as our culture continues to move towards the abstract.

My main frustration with this book was Crawford's heavy reliance on his two specialities: philosophy and mechanics. I'm a great believer in da Vinci's assertion that "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" and the author would have done well to keep that in mind while writing. Crawford's writing style is too philosophical and just plain wordy, and I think that'll hurt him when it comes to readers, especially those who aren't from the knowledge worker portion of society. Additionally, while I appreciate and grasp his reliance on dozens of mechanics examples, references, etc. because it's what the author knows, it would have been nice to showcase some other examples that would have been easier for me to relate to. But we write what we know best, and as Crawford suggests, that knowledge may arise from confronting the real thing rather than simply visualizing or discussing it.

Stars: 3