MATTHEW CRAWFORD, SHOP CLASS AS SOUL CRAFT: AN INQUIRY INTO THE VALUE OF WORK

Matthew Crawford has become sort of a “rock star” philosopher, and his “very Bellingham” book has been wildly popular in hard cover.  Now that it’s coming out in paperback, come hear and read for yourself about Matthew’s validating views on the worth, integrity, and necessity of work done with one’s own hands.

For some, high school shop class was a rite of passage: required study of the manual arts, a break from text books to actually make and fix things.  Today, shop class has all but disappeared from the mainstream educational landscape, replaced by the necessity of turning everyone into a “knowledge worker.”  This imperative is based on a misguided assumption that there is a separation of thinking from doing; the work of the hand from that of the mind.  Matthew B. Crawford offers an inspired manifesto that will restore the honor of the manual trades in this bestselling book.

Crawford, an accomplished philosopher, electrician, and motorcycle mechanic, believes the manual trades offer the best hope of self-reliance and satisfaction at a time when all of us increasingly feel out-of-touch in an abstract world.  The person who works with his or her hands is judged and rewarded by the standards inherent in the work itself: the motor starts or it doesn’t; the lights go on or they don’t.  Craftsmanship, and the art of making things and fixing things, is work that can not become obsolete or outsourced.  It requires careful thinking, and offers intrinsic satisfaction and cognitive challenges that should be celebrated and cultivated.  In a time of economic uncertainty, the trades offer security as well as the pride that comes from doing work that is genuinely useful.

Featured on the cover of the New York Times Magazine, this book hit a nerve with the American public by arguing for a very new (and very old) answer to what ails us as a society – a return to manual work that is both rewarding and soul-inspiring.  

Matthew B. Crawford is a philosopher and mechanic. Currently a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, he owns and operates Shockoe Moto, an independent motorcycle repair shop in Richmond, Virginia.
 

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