Description
Yale University Press Story of Work A New History of Humankind by Jan Lucassen
The first truly global history of work, an upbeat assessment from the age of the hunter-gatherer to the present day_x000D__x000D_"Beginning in the hunting-and-gathering past, this long view of work shows how little has changed over millennia. Progressing through the rise of cities, wages and markets for labour, it traces a perennial cycle of injustice and resistance-and the age-old desire for more."-The Economist, "Best Books of 2021"_x000D__x000D_"Absolutely fascinating. . . . Lucassen's own compassion shines through this magisterial book."-Christina Patterson, The Guardian_x000D__x000D_We work because we have to, but also because we like it: from hunting-gathering more than 700,000 years ago to the present era of zoom meetings, humans have always worked to make the world around them serve their needs._x000D__x000D_Jan Lucassen provides an inclusive history of humanity's busy labor throughout the ages. Spanning China, India, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, Lucassen looks at the ways in which humanity organizes work: in the household, the tribe, the city, and the state. He examines how labor is split between men, women, and children; the watershed moment of the invention of money; the collective action of workers; and the impact of migration, slavery, and the idea of leisure._x000D__x000D_From peasant farmers in the first agrarian societies to the precarious existence of today's gig workers, this surprising account of both cooperation and subordination at work throws essential light on the opportunities we face today._x000D_show more