The Craftsman
by Richard Sennett
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Book Summary Information
Author: Richard SennettEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-03-31
ISBN: 0300151195
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Yale University Press
Book Reviews of The Craftsman
Book Review: An Important Re-framing of an Old Idea
Summary: 5 Stars
Richard Sennett has been one of my most-preferred interpreters of physical and social culture since Flesh and Stone. He tackles issues that got trampled by misapplications of lit-crit and semiotic theory over the last few decades, and manages to get them back into the discussion. He has a rather dogged style: history, explication, and journalistic fairness are treated like responsibilities in language that is mostly quite dry, even bland. But what he lacks in vivacity, he more than covers with solid, methodical argumentation and a heartening tendency to broaden concepts and include the truly modern. In this volume, for example, Sennett adds Linux programming to the list of what we normally think of as craft, and I think he makes his case. Craft is a wicked thicket for us Moderns: we have not kept pace with its devaluation in an age of competitive production and disposable workers, and the quality of our handwork has suffered, but Sennett also convinces me that our comprehension of the world and the place of humans in it has suffered, because good craft is the meeting of mind and hand. What devalues handwork impoverishes the human mind. We lose our capacity for imagination.
I read this book very closely, pencil in hand, convinced that Sennett has contributed greatly to our understanding of what it means to be human in a machine age. I believe that his work has eclipsed Hannah Arendt's by now. Excellent.
Summary of The Craftsman
Why do people work hard, and take pride in what they do? This book, a philosophically-minded enquiry into practical activity of many different kinds past and present, is about what happens when people try to do a good job. It asks us to think about the true meaning of skill in the 'skills society' and argues that pure competition is a poor way to achieve quality work. Sennett suggests, instead, that there is a craftsman in every human being, which can sometimes be enormously motivating and inspiring - and can also in other circumstances make individuals obsessive and frustrated."The Craftsman" shows how history has drawn fault-lines between craftsman and artist, maker and user, technique and expression, practice and theory, and that individuals' pride in their work, as well as modern society in general, suffers from these historical divisions. But the past lives of crafts and craftsmen show us ways of working (using tools, acquiring skills, thinking about materials) which provide rewarding alternative ways for people to utilise their talents. We need to recognise this if motivations are to be understood and lives made as fulfilling as possible.Economics Books
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