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Matthew B. Crawford
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The Case for Working with Your Hands or Why Office Work Is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good Paperback – December 16, 2010

by Matthew Crawford (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 196 ratings
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It's time to rethink our attitudes to work.

For too long we have convinced ourselves that the only jobs worth doing involve sitting at a desk. Generations of school-leavers head for university lacking the skills to fix or even understand the most basic technology. And yet many of us are not suited to office life, while skilled manual work provides one of the few and most rewarding paths to a secure living.

Drawing on the work of our greatest thinkers, from Aristotle to Heidegger, from Karl Marx to Iris Murdoch, as well as on his own experiences as an electrician and motorcycle mechanic, Matthew Crawford's irreverent and inspiring manifesto will change the way you think about work forever.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    246 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin
  4. Publication date
    December 16, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    0.9 x 5 x 7.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0141047291
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0141047294
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; Reprint edition (December 16, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 246 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141047291
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141047294
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.9 x 5 x 7.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 196 ratings

About the author

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Matthew B. Crawford

Matthew B. Crawford

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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.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
196 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Bikenraider99
5.0 out of 5 stars Just do it!
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2015
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This is my 5th copy of the book, as I give it to graduation presents to my younger friends and family members. Having come up through the blue collar ranks myself, I relate to this book. While the author uses a vocabulary that is advanced to say the least, and goes on and on in some of the paragraphs, his point never waivers. For anyone who has tackled a DIY project or built something from their own minds, this is what that is about. The ability to do for yourself, the ability to see actual work come to life; whether it's changing your oil, doing your own breaks, building a book shelf or play house for your children. From beginning to end the work and progress can be measured. This book is about rekindling that itch to just build it. Highly recommend.
6 people found this helpful
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RW
4.0 out of 5 stars European Edition of Shop Class as Soul Craft
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2011
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I enjoyed reading Shop Class as Soul Craft and thought this was possibly the sequel to that book. However, The Case for Working with your Hands is the same book as Shop Class, but the European edition. Maybe I didn't read the discription carefully enough, though Amnazon lists this book to purchase along with the original American edition. Caveat Emptor!

(4 Stars is for the actual book. I hate when people give 1 star beacause of this type of issue or it's not available in Kindle. Stars should be for the quality of the book itself).
126 people found this helpful
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anne burke
5.0 out of 5 stars What kind of work makes us truly human?
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2017
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a thoughtful explanation of, among other things, how modern schooling, designed to suffocate our critical thinking skills, makes us ready to fit into the shallow peripatetic jobs demanded by modern technocratic capitalism. I haven't finished the book yet so I don't know whether the author tells the reader in the end to just screw mainstream culture but based on what I've read so far that would be my advice. And in the collapse to come, knowing how to work with our hands will be of crucial importance not only for ourselves but for those who are important to us. Since reading this book I've even started doing my own plumbing, I kid you not.
3 people found this helpful
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Timothy J. Reynolds
3.0 out of 5 stars I'm not happy with this book
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2020
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The one star was for Amazon. I really enjoyed this book when I read it . . . the first time! I am a carpenter who once did graduate work in sociology and, later, in theological ethics. Crawford captures the satisfaction that comes from working with your hands, from finding solutions to problems, and from seeing new work in place at the end of the day. I would certainly recommend this book. However, this edition is the UK edition which is identical with the original US edition except that the title has been changed with no mention of that fact in Amazon's page for the book. If I had known that, I would never have purchased this book. Now the book is "no longer eligible for return." Also, I couldn't find any place on the Amazon web site to post a complaint. Therefore, since I have other avenues for getting books, I will take advantage of those for the foreseeable future.
3 people found this helpful
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W. Ritchie
5.0 out of 5 stars Keep this book on my office desktop to cheer me ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2018
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Keep this book on my office desktop to cheer me up when I've stared at the computer screen all day.
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Zenmeister
5.0 out of 5 stars Home run
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2013
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Hard to find a book on the nature of contemporary craftsmanship. Crawford hit the nail on the head. Easy for those of us who haves walked the path to relate to.
4 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Contrived and Immature
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2017
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Very disappointed. The author seems pissed off at the world. Moreover, instead of offering guidance and inspiration to the “knowledge” workers that are uninspired at their cubicles, he argues why he is right. The author’s choice of words is so unbelievably unnecessary as if he wrote this book hoping the intellectual elite, that he’s giving the finger to with this book, have a hard time understanding it, as to say he’s smarter than they are even though he is a trade worker. Seems rather boyish to me.
3 people found this helpful
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fjrtsb
5.0 out of 5 stars Working with Your Hands
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2013
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Wonderful book. I've read it twice. This book should be read by anyone who thinks upward mobility is the answer to their prosperity.
10 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Monica Andrew
2.0 out of 5 stars Not all office jobs are the same
Reviewed in Australia on October 29, 2018
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The author obviously didn't enjoy his short-lived stints in office work but every office job is different and many people enjoy the intellectual challenge they offer. I enjoy working with my hands but I think I would find it very stressful if I had to make a living out of it, especially supporting a family.
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NFSfreak
5.0 out of 5 stars Will change the way you perceive manual, engaging work.
Reviewed in India on July 16, 2016
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If you haven't read philosophy before, read it on a Kindle (integrated dictionary makes it very easy) and be prepared to read this book twice.
Not for those who enjoy simple reading.
One person found this helpful
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Nicolò Dall'Aglio
3.0 out of 5 stars Case for Working with Your Hands
Reviewed in Italy on May 26, 2013
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Nice book with good hints, but too much fuss about fixing your own bike...A biker will love it, otherwise it's just a good book
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nomdenym
5.0 out of 5 stars The past? No - hopefully the future of work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2011
Verified Purchase
Really well written, genuinely thought provoking. Matthew Crawford sets out the value and the beauty of craft work in an elegantly expressed and carefully constructed series of arguments. Through the unusual setting of motorbike maintenance, he subtly constructs and illustrates a case for working with our hands that is compelling in its appeals to both logic and morality and where his passion for what he does, both as mechanic and philosopher, draws the reader subtly but consciously onside. If you've ever had the satisfaction of making or repairing anything or raged at the frustration of being told to 'throw it away and get a new one', this book will strike many chords. But the analysis goes much further than individual work to offer an important critique of work generally and how the value of people and their efforts is continuously undermined in modern economies (good to see Braverman's ideas being re-expressed). All this ...and a superb destruction of management too.
One person found this helpful
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Butler baboo
3.0 out of 5 stars Very intelligent, but way way too intellectual for me
Reviewed in India on October 28, 2015
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Very intelligent, but way way too intellectual for me. I luv working with my hands. I love motorbikes and a call to the simple life. But god, lets not build elaborate, dense and mind- bending theories around it.
One person found this helpful
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