Work: The Last 1,000 Years

by Andrea Komlosy, Loren Balhorn (Translator)

By the end of the nineteenth century, the general Western conception of work had been reduced to simply gainful employment. But this limited perspective contrasted sharply with the personal experience of most people in the world-whether in colonies, developing countries or in the industrializing world. Moreover, from a feminist perspective, reducing work and the production of value to remunerated employment has never been convincing.Andrea Komlosy argues in this important intervention that, when we examine it closely, work changes its meanings according to different historical and regional contexts. Globalizing labour history from the thirteenth to the twenty-first centuries, she sheds light on the complex coexistence of multiple forms of labour (paid/unpaid, free/ unfree, with various forms of legal regulation and social protection and so on) on the local and the world levels. Combining this global approach with a gender perspective opens our eyes to the varieties of work and labour and their combination in households and commodity chains across the planet-processes that enable capital accumulation not only by extracting surplus value from wage-labour, but also through other forms of value transfer, realized by tapping into households' subsistence production, informal occupation and makeshift employment. As the debate about work and its supposed disappearance intensifies, Komlosy's book provides a crucial shift in the angle of vision.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Economics, Politics, Labor, Social Science, World History

355 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Ashleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating subject but very dry writing - I was relieved to finish this book and question why I persevered with it to the end. I would recommend it as a reference book for those writing academically on the subject, but not for general consumption.

[TammyJo Eckhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many ways to write a history of a broad topic like work, family, rivers, etc. Sometimes an author has a given philosophy that underpins their use of facts and data as well as their interpretation of them. This is rather clearly a marxist approach to the subject of work and while I'm very glad that the author, Andrea Komlosy, didn't hide this fact, some people might automatically reject a book for such an approach. Every theory will have limitations and strengths and this is a good example of both.

I appreciated how the book is organized and that Komlosy takes care to explain terms and the data she uses. However it was a rather dry read making this most accessible to someone interested in the topic beyond the layperson level. This good be a good book to use in a college course where it is merely one of several theories used to compare similar information.

I felt Komlosy also did a good job of being inclusive of the different groups of people affected by changes in the idea and implementation of work. Among those groups are various economic and land owning categories, ethnic and racial groups, and gender categories. Yes, the focus is primarily on Europe but much of the previous scholarship on this subject and related subjects have been on Europe so I do not think it is a fair criticism of this book to say it is too Eurocentric.

The bulk of the book is chapter 6, "Historical Cross-sections." However, while I understand the need to start somewhere, I had several disagreements with some of the statements about 1250; many of the institutions can be found earlier in Europe. Even without the bulk of surviving literature from the previous eras, I do think that continuity was there to a greater degree. Later period of European history I am not as knowledgable in to judge.

[Arno Vlierberghe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een onmisbaar overzicht voor iedereen die zich afvraagt waarom in godsnaam ze maandagochtend in een meeting zitten over strategische doelstellingen en hun SEO-vertaling.

[Sergio Caredda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro accademico, non di facile lettura ma ricco di informazioni. Offre un quadro della Natura del Lavoro attraverso una serie di “quadri” radicati nel 1250, 1500, 1700, 1800, 1900 e ai giorni nostri. Analizza la storia del lavoro da un punto di vista storiografico ed economico, distintamente marxista. Ma offre un’ottima prospettiva globale.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obtained on sale as a free digital copy from Verso Books, an awesome company. Took me a while to start and a while to finish!

It delivered as promised, an explanation of the different kinds of work throughout the last 1,000 years and it was interesting to see how human labor has always been exploited. It was a bit of a dry read but it was also translated from another language. It was factual and enlightening although not a fun read. I did enjoy getting a better historical context to the systems that we have now.

[Mufti Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit hard to read in a way that it's hard to read without feeling plain and dry in the writing. But, it's a pretty comprehensive book to understand what Work means for us and it's place in the Anthropocene. Hard to finish but worth the time.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A more academic study than I expected, and ended up skipping over the large portion of the historical matter in the middle, though I really enjoyed the front and end chapters.

[Yousif Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic overview of the topic. I would recommend it as a read for academic study/reference.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads a lot like a dissertation. Not a book I would recommend if you don't already have at least some background in the subject area, it is incredibly dense in places. Can be useful as a reference.

[Arnas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. Not an easy read, but it's not that long either.

[Anna rzk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is utterly fascinating and mind blowing but it’s rather dry written ,that’s why it took me a while to finish it however will still recommend.

[Javier Garcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not a primer on the subject. Also the writing is dense. Will reread.

[Jisoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the structure. The writing started out strong but became too abstract by the end.