Shop Class as Soulcraft
No doubt one of the toughest books to get through. And yet, there is gold, deep and revolutionary gold, the whole way through out. Get this book. Stick with it. Reawaken some core parts of us as men that have been lost, stolen and atrophied. Simply phenomenal writing and ideas on the heart of man as a generalist and as specialist/craftsman. A must read – the last page and the footnotes – for every man.
The following is the description from Amazon:
A philosopher/mechanic’s wise (and sometimes funny) look at the challenges and pleasures of working with one’s hands
Called “the sleeper hit of the publishing season” (The Boston Globe), Shop Class as Soulcraft became an instant bestseller, attracting readers with its radical (and timely) reappraisal of the merits of skilled manual labor. On both economic and psychological grounds, author Matthew B. Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a “knowledge worker,” based on a misguided separation of thinking from doing. Using his own experience as an electrician and mechanic, Crawford presents a wonderfully articulated call for self-reliance and a moving reflection on how we can live concretely in an ever more abstract world.
