A decade later, following eight years of the Clinton administration's non-stop, machine gun style propaganda campaign advising America it "never had it so good" (quality of life-wise), Schor's book is almost forgotten, never discusssed seriously, and not regarded as what in fact it was and is, one of the great and important classic works by a scholar on the subject of labor in America at the close of the twentieth century.
Schor has gone on to write other, far less impressive books. Her recent books lack the gusto and fervor of THE OVERWORKED AMERICAN (1991), and are not about subjects as important. She seems, de facto, to have joined the people who nay-sayed the importance of her 1991 book. That's a shame, because the book was good, she was right to write it, and deserved/deserves far more acclaim and gratitude than she got when, it seems, she stuck her then young neck out and told the truth about a painful and politically incorrect subject, the brutal yet undiscussed and mostly unchallenged bad conditions which face American workers.
Her book, THE OVERWORKED AMERICAN, had implications discussed only by Ralph Nadar among Presidential candidates in the 2000 elections, and only briefly and superficially by him.
Do get a hard-back copy of this book (the paperback, which I haven't read, may well lack some of the good stuff included in the hard-back version....changes occur when hard back books appear in paper-back versions). ... if sold new today, and tells the truth about the American labor situation and quality of life situation not found elsewhere at any price.
Sometimes, only old books tell the truth about important subjects. That's what classics, even ones not yet accorded "classic" status, are all about.
Harvard professor Juliet Schor spins a convincing and disturbing tale regarding the increasing numbers of hours we spend each week at work rather than leisure. This is a historical surprise, since most baby boomers emerged from the colleges and universities convinced we would have more leisure time and better ways to pursue our many avocational interests than any generation in the past. In this entertaining, topical, and quite readable book, the author surveys a plethora of reasons for the surprising trend toward overwork. The principal dynamic she pinpoints in influencing this trend is an economy that literally demands extra effort and time from its employees, an economy which until quite recently had a chronic shortage of available jobs and "surplus" labor pool of potential workers. Under such circumstances, anyone lacking the requisite willingness to work extra hours was indeed dispensable. Thus one becomes a careerist in an effort to survive. She also details how our culturally conditioned goal-oriented attitude toward time as a resource to be used effectively and efficiently rather than as a precious resource to be used to increase the quality of our own lives plays into the situation.
For Schor, we are on a treadmill, if not to oblivion, then to an impoverished cultural life where we are what we do occupationally rather than what we do and what we become in our leisure hours pursuing our avocations and our personal lives with family and friends. This is an important and path breaking book, one that we should find especially relevant given the fact that many of the jobs we are so seemingly addicted to will soon fade away in the new markets and new economies of the so-called "Third Wave". Anyone who has experienced "downsizing" at the hands of a large and impersonal corporation can tell you how quickly all those sacrifices and long hours are disregarded and forgotten by your employer. The emotional and economic impacts of such events can be devastating to the individual and his or her family. As a friend said to me recently, anyone who is what they do really isn't very much at all. Read and heed.
Question: is it worth it? The Puritanical work-consume-work-consume-die mentality is being questioned by some Americans, now that their investments, pensions, and 401-Ks have lost the principal to allow them to live and do what they have always been wanting to do. This book may seem contrary to the way most Americans have been raised and advised throughout their lives.
Do Americans have time to reflect, think, relax, and pursue anything to their liking? The answer depends on who you are, so ask yourself that question. This is a relevant book for a very relevant topic.