eBook - ePub

Doing Nothing

Name: Doing Nothing
Author: Tom Lutz

A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America

Tom Lutz,

388 pages
English
ePUB (mobile friendly)
Available on iOS & Android

eBook - ePub

Doing Nothing

A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America

Tom Lutz,

About this book

From the author of Crying, a witty, wide-ranging cultural history of our attitudes toward work—and getting out of it
Couch potatoes, goof-offs, freeloaders, good-for-nothings, loafers, and loungers: ever since the Industrial Revolution, when the work ethic as we know it was formed, there has been a chorus of slackers ridiculing and lampooning the pretensions of hardworking respectability. Reviled by many, heroes to others, these layabouts stretch and yawn while the rest of society worries and sweats. Whenever the world of labor changes in significant ways, the pulpits, politicians, and pedagogues ring with exhortations of the value of work, and the slackers answer with a strenuous call of their own: "To do nothing," as Oscar Wilde said, "is the most difficult thing in the world." From Benjamin Franklin's "air baths" to Jack Kerouac's "dharma bums," Generation-X slackers, and beyond, anti-work-ethic proponents have held a central place in modern culture.
Moving with verve and wit through a series of fascinating case studies that illuminate the changing place of leisure in the American republic, Doing Nothing revises the way we understand slackers and work itself.

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Yes, you can access Doing Nothing by Tom Lutz in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.