Hobbies

Leisure and the Culture of Work in America

AvSteven M. Gelber

Häftad, Engelska, 1999

668 kr

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Beskrivning

Whether it's needlepoint or woodworking, collecting stamps or dolls, everyone has a hobby, or is told they need one. But why do we fill our leisure time with the activities we do? And what do our hobbies say about our culture? Steven Gelber here traces the history and significance of hobbies from the mid-nineteenth century through the 1950s. Although hobbies are often touted as a break from work, Gelber demonstrates that they reflect and reproduce the values and activities of the workplace by bringing utilitarian rationality into the home, imitating the economic stratification of the marketplace, and reinforcing traditional gender roles. Drawing on a wide array of social and cultural theory, Hobbies fills a critical gap in American cultural history and provides a compelling new perspective on the meaning of leisure.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:1999-06-25
Mått:152 x 229 x undefined mm
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:400
Förlag:Columbia University Press
ISBN:9780231113939

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Mer om författaren

Stephen Gelber is professor of history and chair of the History Department at Santa Clara University. He is the author of Black Men and Businessmen: The Growing Awareness of a Social Responsibility and Saving the Earth: The History of a Middle-Class Millenarian Movement.

Recensioner i media

Gelber has uncovered an astonishing array of writings-advice literature, popular magazines, newspaper articles-on hobiies... Gelber takes an unusal and little studied topic-the history of hobbies-and shows us its depth, its breadth and its importance. This is a fine book, one that reminds us that the study of leisure is also the study of work, gender, and culture. -- Cindy S. Aron American Historical Review

Innehållsförteckning

Preface Introduction: Context and Theory Section 1: Hobbies as a Category 1: Occupations for Free Time Section 2: Collecting 2: The Collectible Object 3: Collectors 4: Constructing a Collector's Market 5: Deconstructing a Collector's Market Section 3: Handicrafts 6: Crafts, by Tools, and Gender in the Nineteenth Century 7: Expanding the Boundaries of Crafts 8: Home Crafts in Hard Times 9: Kits: Assembly as Craft 10: Do-It-Yourself: Expected Leisure Conclusion Index