For me, Shop Class as Soulcraft didn't live up to its billing. I had read several positive reviews, both here and elsewhere, and the premise interested me: a meditation on the moral superiority of the trades over knowledge-work.

Crawford argues that the tradesman wins a battle against narcissism every day by holding his work up to the external standard of does it work? By contrast, the occupational standards governing so-called knowledge-workers are either arbitrary or non-existent, leading to an office politics based on teamwork or reputation, unaffiliated with the effectiveness of any product. And that's when the standards are not actively forcing the knowledge-worker to abandon his better judgment. Following Aristotle, Crawford exhorts the reader in the direction of an ethics of "moral virtue," "human flourishing," and "excellence," and argues (quite correctly in my view) that the modern office is conducive to none of these.

My critique is that Crawford is essentially telling us what we all already know—at least implicitly, at least in the form of an unarticulated awareness—about working in an office. Moreover, Shop Class as Soulcraft does very little to aid the reader in articulating this awareness, inasmuch as its analytical passages are quite opaque with philosobabble.

The best parts of Shop Class as Soulcraft are the autobiographical vignettes that Crawford intersperses. These passages say all that really needs to be said about the importance of working with one's own hands and of mastering one's own stuff. In places, Crawford reveals himself to be a playful and entertaining writer (read, e.g., the passage quoted at length here in seashar's review). I'd have loved a book that hummed with such personality throughout.

Probably the take-away message here is for high schoolers and their parents: college isn't for everybody. For some people, it really is just four more years of sitting at a desk, bored—to prepare you for a lifetime of sitting at a desk, bored. It is reasonable to balk at such a prospect. If that's you, then maybe Crawford has a point: maybe you'd be happier if you picked up a wrench instead.

Great book that--like _The Mind at Work_ challenges our perceptions of the distinction between manual labor and mental labor. It's a great spur for conversations, for self-examination, and for rethinking our thinking about what work means. ( )

Matthew B. Crawford used to work in a think tank, and now he works with his hands, fixing motorcycles. He thinks that modern labor is alienating, and that most modern jobs do not center upon a striving for excellence, but upon an amorphous sense of "team spirit" that deadens the individual. I agree with him on many points. His ideas are interesting. Unfortunately, he still writes like a think-tank denizen, turning out sentences that would, if they were engine parts, be discarded as awkward and clunky and needlessly crooked. Still worth a peek, though...

A metaphysical exploration in the meaningfulness of work by an author who is both a professional knowledge worker and a professional craftsman. Although at times a bit too existential for some people’s taste, it serves as a very accessible dialog on what constitutes meaningful work and intellectual engagement. Detailing the metachanges in how Americans view work since the Ford’s advent of mass production, Crawford gives a well-reasoned apology for craft work both economically and, more importantly, to ensure engaged and meaning-filled lives of the masses. Works well along side A Brave New World. ( )

Makes me wonder why I ever went to college, and then to law school. Of course, since I'm not in the least technically inclined, maybe I'm cut out to be a pencil pusher. ( )