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  • Shop Class as Soulcraft

  • An Inquiry into the Value of Work
  • Written by: Matthew B. Crawford
  • Narrated by: Max Bloomquist
  • Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (35 ratings)

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Shop Class as Soulcraft cover art

Shop Class as Soulcraft

Written by: Matthew B. Crawford
Narrated by: Max Bloomquist
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Publisher's Summary

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" by The Boston Globe, Shop Class as Soulcraft became an instant best seller, attracting fans 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.

©2009 Matthew B. Crawford (P)2018 Penguin Audio

What the critics say

"It's appropriate that [Shop Class as Soulcraft] arrives in May, the month when college seniors commence real life. Skip Dr. Seuss, or a tie from Vineyard Vines, and give them a copy for graduation.... It's not an insult to say that Shop Class is the best self-help book that I've ever read. Almost all works in the genre skip the 'self' part and jump straight to the 'help.' Crawford rightly asks whether today's cubicle dweller even has a respectable self.... It's kind of like Heidegger and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." (Slate)  

"Matt Crawford's remarkable book on the morality and metaphysics of the repairman looks into the reality of practical activity. It is a superb combination of testimony and reflection, and you can't put it down." (Harvey Mansfield, professor of government, Harvard University) 

"Every once in a great while, a book will come along that's brilliant and true and perfect for its time. Matthew B. Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft is that kind of book, a prophetic and searching examination of what we've lost by ceasing to work with our hands - and how we can get it back. During this time of cultural anxiety and reckoning, when the conventional wisdom that has long driven our wealthy, sophisticated culture is foundering amid an economic and spiritual tempest, Crawford's liberating volume appears like a lifeboat on the horizon." (Rod Dreher, author of Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots)  

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Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Redux

I really enjoyed this book. I listened to it while I worked. With my hands.

It resonated deeply.

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Great book

I'm not filmilar with automotive stuff so some things were lost on me but we'll written the man as obvious very intelligent his choice for words is almost poetic and profound... Worth the listen

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Allan L

Have enjoyed this book several times, I see the logic here, it is nice to have your world view confirmed this way. Yes it preaches to the converted here, so much so much so I have gifted the book several times.
I have worked outdoors using my witts and the tools of the trade my whole life and can continue to do so in retirement to great satisfaction. The best men I have known have been the renaissance men that are Jacks of many trades, these people have all been happy, curious and satisfied with life.

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