Hobbies: Leisure and the Culture of Work in America

Revised
ISBN: 978-0-231-11393-9
Verlag: COLUMBIA UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 400 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 531 g

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gelber, Steven

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophische Anthropologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PrefaceIntroduction: Context and TheorySection 1: Hobbies as a Category1: Occupations for Free TimeSection 2: Collecting2: The Collectible Object3: Collectors4: Constructing a Collector's Market5: Deconstructing a Collector's MarketSection 3: Handicrafts6: Crafts, by Tools, and Gender in the Nineteenth Century7: Expanding the Boundaries of Crafts8: Home Crafts in Hard Times9: Kits: Assembly as Craft10: Do-It-Yourself: Expected LeisureConclusionIndex

Über Autor(innen)

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.