Henry at Work - by John Kaag & Jonathan Van Belle (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In this book, John Kaag and Jonathan van Belle illuminate an underexplored aspect of worked-over cultural icon Henry David Thoreau and what his thinking has to tell us about the way we work now. Henry at Work overturns the popular perception of Thoreau as a navel-gazing recluse, scornful of work and other mundanities. Just the opposite, they argue, Thoreau worked hard and thought intensely about work: why we do it, what we hope to gain from it, and what it does to us. They aim to show readers not only Thoreau the writer and philosopher, but also the lesser-known Thoreau: Thoreau the worker, economist, and even the efficiency expert"--

Book Synopsis

What Thoreau can teach us about working--why we do it, what it does to us, and how we can make it more meaningful

Henry at Work invites readers to rethink how we work today by exploring an aspect of Henry David Thoreau that has often been overlooked: Thoreau the worker. John Kaag and Jonathan van Belle overturn the popular misconception of Thoreau as a navel-gazing recluse who was scornful of work and other mundanities. In fact, Thoreau worked hard--surveying land, running his family's pencil-making business, writing, lecturing, and building his cabin at Walden Pond--and thought intensely about work in its many dimensions. And his ideas about work have much to teach us in an age of remote work and automation, when many people are reconsidering what kind of working lives they want to have.

Through Thoreau, readers will discover a philosophy of work in the office, factory, lumber mill, and grocery store, and reflect on the rhythms of the workday, the joys and risks of resigning oneself to work, the dubious promises of labor-saving technology, and that most vital and eternal of philosophical questions, "How much do I get paid?" In ten chapters, including "Manual Work," "Machine Work," and "Meaningless Work," this personal, urgent, practical, and compassionate book introduces readers to their new favorite coworker: Henry David Thoreau.

Review Quotes

"Think of anything having to do with your job and [Kaag and van Belle] will find something for you in Thoreau that fits like a glove."---Costica Bradatan, Times Literary Supplement

"Kaag and Van Belle's book is a heartening contribution to reflections on Thoreau whose simple wisdom, while no panacea, has a great deal to teach us, if only we would do what he did so well: pay attention."---Alan Dent, Penniless Press Online

"

[H]umor could gently restore one's faith in life. . . .The same restorative faith emerges from Henry At Work. All too frequently, the modern workplace is confusing, absurd, even hide-bound. . . . [R]eading Henry at Work may cause you to retrieve that old paperback copy of Walden to refresh your thinking about paid employment as you sit under a shade tree.

"---Jill O'Neill, The Scholarly Kitchen

"A fascinating and thought-provoking read on how we can attempt to make our work more meaningful and ethical, in order to 'make good' on our lives. As Kaag and van Belle say in the book, we spend a lot of our life at work: if we can, we ought to figure out to what purpose and end we are doing such work."---Ilina Jha, Redbrick Culture

"[I]mpassioned. . . . [Kaag and van Belle] share with [Thoreau] an engaging style of everyday philosophy that extrapolates big questions about a well-led life from seemingly more practical concerns: how to live frugally, to make a living. . . . [T]his accessible and timely book has great potential to urge more people to see Thoreau not as a solitary sluggard but as a resource for thinking together about the future of work, or a future after work as we know it."---Nathan Wolff, Washington Post

"[P]hilosophers John Kaag and Jonathan van Belle offer a Thoreau for our own fraught moment, rooted in what they convincingly describe as the central place of work in Thoreau's philosophy and life."---Geoffrey Kirsch, Los Angeles Review of Books

"In this little book that packs a big punch, [authors Kaag and van Belle] propose an unexpected companion--counselor, even--for our work journeys: the nineteenth-century writer Henry David Thoreau."---Nadya Williams, Current

"

Lively and informal, [Henry at Work] will prompt fruitful conversations about the role of work in our lives.

"---Geoff Wisner, Wall Street Journal

"An elegant and heartening case for parsing the perennial American obsession with work through one of our most discerning writers. The Thoreauvian world that the authors envision is both thoughtful and sweaty, more egalitarian and more meaningful. If we want to actualize this ruddy utopia, we'd better get to work."---Lydia Moland, The American Scholar

"It is finally time to move past the idea that Thoreau was a ponderous layabout whose solitary musings were only possible because of behind-the-scenes support staff (his family). . . . In a post-Covid moment when society is struggling to define the meaning and purpose of so much of what we call work, Thoreau's 19th-century ideas about labor are both highly relevant and weirdly prescient."-- "Lit Hub"

"[An] astute study. . . . The speculation on what Thoreau would think about modern workplaces is plausible and well supported. . . making a strong case for the transcendentalist's continued relevance. This should give workaholics pause."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"

This is philosophy as Thoreau would have recognized it: full of life. An inspiring book that will give you the succor you need to reconsider--and possibly change--the way you work.

"-- "Kirkus"

About the Author

John Kaag is the Donohue Professor of Ethics and the Arts at UMass Lowell and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His books include Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are and Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life (Princeton). Jonathan van Belle is an independent scholar and former philosophy editor at Outlier.org. He is also coeditor with Kaag of the anthology Be Not Afraid of Life: In the Words of William James (Princeton).