Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work

If you're a gearhead and tool enthusiast like I am you will be happy to know that there is now solid intellectual support for our passions. Matthew Crawford has a PHD in philosophy from the University of Chicago, but he's also been a Porsche mechanic and a motorcycle repairman. He quit a prestigious job at a Washington DC think tank to start an unassuming motorcycle repair shop on the seedy side of Richmond, Virginia.


By all means get your hands on a copy of this book.  I'm in the middle of reading the book right now and couldn't wait to blog about it. I'll do a more extensive review in the coming days. Buy the book using this link to help support the Shop Kulture blog.

"It's appropriate that [Shop Class as Soulcraft] arrives in May, the month when college seniors commence real life. Skip Dr. Seuss, or a tie from Vineyard Vines, and give them a copy for graduation.... It's not an insult to say that Shop Class is the best self-help book that I've ever read. Almost all works in the genre skip the "self" part and jump straight to the "help." Crawford rightly asks whether today's cubicle dweller even has a respectable self....It's kind of like Heidegger and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
-Slate