Shop Class As Soulcraft

A wonderful make-you-smile book by an engaging mechanic/philosopher/storyteller who, after many years of working in various office situations, started a one-man motorcycle repair and restoration business. For years the author was a PhD ‘knowledge worker’, busily writing expert papers and analyzing proposals. Then one day he stopped doing that to take up wrenching on old motorbikes. Could he make it economically and emotionally? Mechanically?

This is someone who’s thought hard about how the world’s continuing expansion of white-collar work has been changing people and society. His book is a page-turning storyteller’s tale, saturated with examples of motorcycle repairs and learning experiences which elucidate important ideas about the value of real quantifiable work and how it relates to better personal, financial and emotional security. It’s an extremely thought-provoking story with a wonderful bunch of moto-anecdotes. By Matthew B. Crawford. Softbound, 6"×8.5", 246 pp., b/w illus.