About this title: This pathbreaking book documents for the first time the unanticipated decline in leisure both at work and in the home over the last twenty years and explains why Americans enjoy less leisure today than at any other time since the end of World War II.. This pathbreaking book explains why, contrary to all expectations, Americans are working harder than ever. Juliet Schor presents the astonishing news that over the past twenty years our working hours have increased by the equivalent of one month per yeara dramatic spurt that has hit everybody: men and women, professionals as well as low-paid ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780465054336ISBN:0465054331
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 272 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780465054336ISBN:0465054331
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 272 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780465054336ISBN:0465054331
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 272 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780465054343ISBN:046505434X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. A little wear, flexible, clean pages. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 272 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 1991
ISBN-13:9780465054336ISBN:0465054331
Description: Fine. Book and Dust Jacket in LIKE NEW Condition. Only the lightest of wear separates this book from new! Clean inside and out! Remainder mark on bottom page edge. Penciled price inside. SHIPS W/IN 24 HOURS! FREE INSURANCE on all orders! E-mail notification! Careful, thorough packaging. Fast, personal service. No hassle, full refund return policy! COMBINE SHIPPING-TENS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHER BOOKS/CDs/MOVIES AVAILABLE! read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"An approachable, mostly statistics-based analysis on American work habits over the past century. Schor demonstrates that Americans work hours, both at home and at the workplace, have increased. Though most households have appliances such as washing machines and microwaves designed to save time, Americans now spend more or the same amount of time on housework as they did before. And generally speaking, most employees will prefer higher pay as compensation rather than more flexible or reduced hours. In addition to making these observations, Schor provides reasonable explanations: higher standards (e.g. cleanliness etc...), labour market competition, corporate incentives and consumption habits."
"I read another one by the same author, called The Overspent American, and I found it worthwhile, so that is why I picked up this one, especially because of the subtitle. The decline of leisure is an interesting subject to me. The author does her homework and makes a good composite picture of the signs of the times. What I noticed upon reading this is that her politics tend to get in the way of her analysis. I almost felt like I was reading a book by two people -- one scholarly, careful and perceptive, and one who had uncritically assimilated various "isms" and reproduced them without thinking about whether or how they contradicted her central theses.
So I loved the chapters on the medieval work ethic compared to the industrial and post-industrial ones, and the tables demonstrating the increases in work-hours and the deleterious effects these have had on human quality of life and even on productivity and creativity in our country. I was even all right with her proposed solutions for the problem, mainly a matter of the government passing laws to restrict work hours. I think that when the government meddles it often makes the problem worse rather than better because the government in our nation functions as a monolithic and inefficient corporation in its own right.
However, when she tried to summarize what she called "neo-classical economics" by saying that it proposed that workers make their own choices freely, I KNOW she is oversimplifying conservative tenets. And when she talks about feminism she seems to get muddled in the ground between ideology and analysis. She says that corporations are taking over the lives of employees but then seems to uncritically accept that it's a good thing to have more women in the job market. I like her point that men and women should have less of a drone-like role to play in society, so I don't understand why she thinks that making more women into corporate drones can be seen as a blessing."
"Great book. She talks a lot about materialism/consumerism, work/family issues, and how to get out of the cycle of "work and spend", from a progressive economist's viewpoint. There's a good history of the work week, dating back to medieval Europe (and beyond that, though with much less precision in her estimates). It's a bit dated (1992), but if the stats on working hours were updated, she could pretty much leave everything else alone and it would still be relevant to today. One of the fine economists who recognizes that markets are often (I would say inherently) faulty and the labor market is almost always skewed in favor of employers and against workers. Could have been better if the beginning of the book was shorter (there's a lot of discussion of stats and estimates of stats and how she arrived at her numbers, other surveys of working hours, etc.), though I understand her need to state her case. The thing that would have given this book five stars for me is if she had gone just a little further and called less for liberal reforms that will most likely only superficially help the situation and more for radical solutions that address the root of the problem (though she does say that it's capitalism, not industry, that is the primary culprit for the rise in working hours and the decline of leisure)."
"This book provides an unusual perspective on the unexpected loss of leisure time in America. The focus is on how materialism of individuals and corporations has trumped leisure. She has insightful perspectives and facts about how life has changed with the advent of industrialzation, urbanization, two-income families, etc.
For example, she points out that if we were willing to live at the same comfortable material level we did in 1948, we would only have to work every other day, or four hours per day, or every other week, or every other year! She has the math to back this up too, unbelievable thought it sounds. This is due to increased efficiencies and productivity. Unfortunately, businesses and individuals have always chosen more money than time and are now slaves to a fast-paced, overworked, leisure-lacking, material lifestyle.
You won't find another perspective on leisure with this economic and social insight. The book encourages you re-evaluate the quality of your own life to ensure that you spend more time on leisure. After all, when retirees are interviewed about what changes they would make with hindsight, they almost all say that they would have spent less time at work and more time with their friends and family. Good advice for all of us, especially way, way before retirement."
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