| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
All the Livelong Day,
By Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work, Revised and Updated Edition (Paperback)
The essential argument underlying this book is that human beings want to work. We love work. Work is part of our nature. But human beings don't work with the unstoppable fervor of machines, so the people who dole out work have tried to compress us into the role of industrial robots.
Barbara Garson doesn't pretend to be impartial. She's outspokenly socialist, believing that the people who do jobs are best capable of judging how those jobs ought to be done. She is not looking for a free hand in the world, and she's not looking to loaf on the clock. But when work is stripped of its inherent meaning and reduced to trivial repetetive twists and pulls, this necessarily strips the workers of some of their noble humanity. Garson began work on this book in the 1970s, and you can tell. Several of her interviewees think they're doing pretty well to be making a buck eighty-five an hour, because that's two dimes better than some of their friends. Her earliest interviewees are bulk industrial workers manufacturing light consumer goods, a field that barely exists in the U.S. these days. Her final interviewees crunch numbers on computers for banks and other institutions, and if anything their work is even more meaningless because they can't see their co-workers and have no idea if the next person on the line is even still alive. There are a couple of chapters in this book where the author steps back from her interview subjects and draws conclusions. These chapters seem a little preachy, and will offend anybody who believes that the current employment system is the only way it could possibly be. This book is best when Garson stands out of the way of her subjects--cannery workers, auto plant techs, desk jockeys, and more--and trusts them to tell their own story. If you've ever had a job so trivial that you wonder why you bother, you'll recognize that you're not alone. If you've always been on the top of the heap, you'll gain a broad understanding of what it's like for the people whose shoulders you're standing on. And either way, you're likely to understand why it's so important that workers link arms and stand together, what they lose when they work with blinders on, and what work could be if humanity were restored to its place of honor.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All the Live Long Day,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work, Revised and Updated Edition (Paperback)
I wanted an insight of routine, demeaning work and the impact it has on one's life. I can relate to contents in this book because all my life i have been stuck in such occupations....secretary...really makes your life miserable..just wanted to read about it!
2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An eye opener for those who haven't alot of work experience,
By A Customer
This review is from: All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work, Revised and Updated Edition (Paperback)
Garson has produced an interesting work which revolves around her research and interviews of workers engaged in some rather unusual but boring occupations.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
I met a girl named Cindy who worked for a while in a Ping-Pong factory. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
casual workers clause, mink fleshing, central payroll, line lady, payroll office, production sheets, line ladies Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bumble Bee, Kennel Club, Helena Rubinstein, Clikitat Falls, Fair Plan, Blue Shield, United Medical Labs, Nan Cappy, Paragon Table Top, Reader's Digest, Barbara Pottgen, Pacific Fur Foods, Andrea Schulman, Indian Nut, Sylvia Klein, Bill Niemi, Charlie Chaplin Factories, Leonard Paola, Mimi Dworkin, San Francisco, Walt Flemm, Don Brown, Ginnie Maes, Len Jenkes, Management Consulting Unit New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
I met a girl named Cindy who worked for a while in a Ping-Pong factory. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
casual workers clause, mink fleshing, central payroll, line lady, payroll office, production sheets, line ladies Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bumble Bee, Kennel Club, Helena Rubinstein, Clikitat Falls, Fair Plan, Blue Shield, United Medical Labs, Nan Cappy, Paragon Table Top, Reader's Digest, Barbara Pottgen, Pacific Fur Foods, Andrea Schulman, Indian Nut, Sylvia Klein, Bill Niemi, Charlie Chaplin Factories, Leonard Paola, Mimi Dworkin, San Francisco, Walt Flemm, Don Brown, Ginnie Maes, Len Jenkes, Management Consulting Unit New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 3
books:
28
books
cite this book:
See all 28 books citing this book
- The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers are Transforming the Office of the Future by Barbara Garson in Front Matter, and page 234
- Henry Ford (Discover the Life of an Inventor) by Ann Gaines on page 90
- Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century by Harry Braverman in Back Matter
- The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker by Mike Rose in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Workers' Control in America: Studies in the History of Work, Technology, and Labor Struggles by David Montgomery on page 175, and Back Matter
- Open-Book Management: Coming Business Revolution, The by John Case in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Workshop to Office: Two Generations of Italian Women in New York City, 1900-1950 by Miriam Cohen on page 182, and Back Matter
- Japanese Industrial Transplants in the United States : Organizational Practices and Relations of Power by Atsushi Sumi in Back Matter
See all 28 books citing this book
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
|
|
