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

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

Matthew B. Crawford, , read by Max Bloomquist. . Brilliance Audio, $29.99 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-4418-0008-4

Max Bloomquist brings his considerable talents to Crawford's meditation on the meaning of work and disparity between “blue collar” and “white collar” occupations. Crawford draws on his own experience—he quit a miserable think tank job and has found joy and meaning working as a motorcycle mechanic—to question the presumed value of the cubicle working world, deplore society's disconnection from the material world and vividly convey the reward of working with one's hands. Bloomquist reads with authority and erudition; his steady, everyman narration makes Crawford's well-founded arguments even more persuasive. A Penguin Press hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 20). (June)