The Craftsman | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Sennett
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.50
Buy New: $18.15
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 13405
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0300119097
Dewey Decimal Number: 601
EAN: 9780300119091
ASIN: 0300119097
Publication Date: March 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Defining craftsmanship far more broadly than “skilled manual labor,” Richard Sennett maintains that the computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen engage in a craftsman’s work. Craftsmanship names the basic human impulse to do a job well for its own sake, says the author, and good craftsmanship involves developing skills and focusing on the work rather than ourselves. In this thought-provoking book, one of our most distinguished public intellectuals explores the work of craftsmen past and present, identifies deep connections between material consciousness and ethical values, and challenges received ideas about what constitutes good work in today’s world. The Craftsman engages the many dimensions of skill—from the technical demands to the obsessive energy required to do good work. Craftsmanship leads Sennett across time and space, from ancient Roman brickmakers to Renaissance goldsmiths to the printing presses of Enlightenment Paris and the factories of industrial London; in the modern world he explores what experiences of good work are shared by computer programmers, nurses and doctors, musicians, glassblowers, and cooks. Unique in the scope of his thinking, Sennett expands previous notions of crafts and craftsmen and apprises us of the surprising extent to which we can learn about ourselves through the labor of making physical things.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Poorly Crafted, But Still Worthwhile December 29, 2008
Oh, the irony! A book devoted to the subject of the craftsman is an exemplar of poor craftsmanship. Happily, this is true only of the apparent lack of proofreading--the content is indeed worth consideration. However, it *is* annoying to read a book that is studded with wrong words, missing words, and sentence fragments. The spell check is no substitute for careful review by a human being...and this was obviously lacking.
Now that that's out of the way--this is a thoughtful and indeed philosophical consideration of what goes into craftsmanship. The author's thinking is buttressed by numerous historical examples of the workshop, the industrial plant, and kinds of materials worked. He examines all this not only for purposes of definition--what is a craftsman--but also to encourage the reader's reflection upon the fate of craft in a society of mass production and consumption. The issue is not only the matter of quality in finished goods, but also of the kind of society that is inevitably shaped by the character of our lives' labors.
This is a book worth reading; just don't let the flagrant sloppiness of the (absent) editing get you down.
 A choppy read, with some insights December 12, 2008
With all the hype I heard about this book, I truly expected much more. This book was anything but a smooth read. The phrasings were awkward and jumpy. There were many typos. There is a typo in the second to last sentence for heaven's sake! Coming out of a hardcover book the first in a series of three, I thought surely the quality would be better.
Once you get past the distracting phraseology and grammatical errors, Sennett does propose and connect some interesting ideas about craft and how it relates to the practices of today. He uses specific historic examples to illustrate the divergence of ancient craft and medley of machine/computer technology available today.
The sources he uses are varied and quite intriguing. I do have to say I did enjoy how he wove ancient and modern philosophies of craft and why it is/is not important to society throughout history. If you can get past the typos and choppy language, it is a good read--you just have to sift through it's somewhat chaotic complexity to get to the gems.
 This book needed a craftsman! December 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As another reviewer said, Sennett is a deplorable writer. Almost to the point of unreadability. In fact, had I not been reading this book for a class, I'm sure I wouldn't have made it all the way through. Having said that, the man's ideas are extremely interesting and timely. Why his publisher couldn't hire a decent editor to polish his text is a mystery.
But I can't really recommend a book with such poor syntax and such a wandering, nearly imcomprehensible style. I have heard that his health is not good, and perhaps there was a rush for him to finish this; he was supposed to speak to my Media Studies class this fall about craftsmanship but apparently was in the hospital.
Salutary Failure October 28, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This was a very good, very flawed book. Sennet's ideas are extremely interesting but he is an deplorable writer. He rambles and mixes metaphors regularly, uses obscure anglicisms and archaisms and odd syntax with dismaying frequency. George Orwell he is not. He sites Hannah Arendt as one of his influences, and I seem to recall she was not the most readable writer either.
Amusingly, he mentions that a work of handicraft should be rough, handmade looking... and his prose is all that! It seems to have been written on a tape recorder. He thanks his manuscript editor in the foreword, he should have fired her, there are sentences that make no sense at all, misspellings, and double entendres.
Maybe he did some of this on purpose, like modern art, so the reader would have to slow down and parse every sentence, who knows? He's like an prophet, he needs someone to interpret him in a more accessible way.
Anyway, I loved his ideas, and think this was a very meaningful book for me personally.
 Signifigance of Craft September 15, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is not your standard craft book. It is an insiteful analysis of craft as a social and human phenomenon. It explores all aspects of craft from the role of the hand to the historical divergence of craft and art.
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