The Concept of Work: Ancient, Medieval, and ModernThis book presents an analysis amd review of work, starting with the Homeric period, then dealing with classical Greece and classical Rome, the early Christians and Jews, the early Middle Ages, the era of Charlemagne, the high Middle Ages, the views of Luther and Calvin, the English and French Enlightenment, the nineteenth century, the twentieth century, and prospects for the future of work. It offers a rich and varied tapestry on the complexity of values regarding work, criss-crossing through crafts, occupations and professions, through slave and free-born employments, through lay and religious figures, and through rural and urban contexts. The permutations of work and its meanings are traced and related to the social and cultural contexts of each period of history dealt with -- ancient, medieval, and modern. Applebaum offers projections for work in the future, based on modern-day technologies, along with work within the context of new social conditions created by industrial cultures in the modern period. The future of work is examined as one of the key elements for the possibility of change in the social structure of industrial cultures. At a time when so many people are questioning the work ethic, this book provides a valuable perspective on work in past societies, how it has developed and been transformed, and what are its prospects for the future. |
Contents
Work in Homeric Society | 3 |
Work in Archaic and Classical Greece | 23 |
The Hellenistic World and the Concept of Work | 69 |
Work and the Concept of Work in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire | 93 |
Conclusion Work in the Ancient World | 167 |
The Concept of Work in the Middle Ages | 177 |
The Attitudes toward Work among the Jews and among the Christians | 179 |
Work and the Monastic Movement | 195 |
Work in the Modern World1500 to 1990 | 319 |
Luther Calvin and the Protestant Concept of Work | 321 |
The English Enlightenment Middle Sixteenth Century to Late Seventeenth Century | 339 |
Work and the Enlightenment in France Scotland and America | 369 |
Nineteenth Century Capitalism Socialism and the Work Ethic | 409 |
The Twentieth Century Selected Philosophies and Perspectives on Work | 455 |
Modern Technology and Work | 513 |
The Work Ethic Consumerism and Leisure | 547 |
Work in Medieval Europe Fifth to Tenth Centuries | 211 |
Work in Medieval Europe Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries | 227 |
Agricultural Work and its Perspectives During the Late Middle Ages | 253 |
Medieval Guilds Masonry and Apprenticeship | 267 |
Women and Work in the Middle Ages | 289 |
Work and the Concept of Work in the Middle Ages | 309 |
Conclusion Work and the Concept of Work in Modern Society | 571 |
WorkPast Present and Future | 579 |
591 | |
629 | |
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Common terms and phrases
activity Adam Smith agriculture ancient ancient Greece apprentices Arendt Aristotle artisans arts Athens attitude became become believed Benedictine Boorstin building capital capitulary century B.C. Christian Church Cistercians citizens clothing collegia Columella concept crafts craftsmen created culture economic Empire England estates ethic Europe factory farm farmer Greece Greek guilds hands Hannah Arendt Hellenistic Hesiod hired Hobbes Homeric household human ideas Iliad important increased industrial society Laborem exercens land LeGoff leisure living machine manual manufacturing Marx masons master material means mechanical medieval ment metics Middle Ages modern monastic monasticism nature needs nobles occupations Odysseus one's organization Ovitt peasant period philosophers Piers Plowman Plato plow Plutarch political production Ptolemaic Egypt Roman Rome Saint skill slaves social things Tilgher tion towns trade wages wealth women wool workers workshops Xenophon