Americans have been searching for a guide out of the economic underworld into which they've descended (bringing the rest of us along). The candidates for escort and saviour have included Barack Obama, Fed chief Ben Bernanke, personal-finance guru Suze Orman, the state of Idaho (which has largely escaped the effects of the recession), the nation of China (which the US hopes will start sharing the burden of consumption) and, of course, Bono. Motorcycle repairman Matthew Crawford didn't make the list, at least not until late last month, when his book Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work became a surprise hit.
“Shop class” is the American term for technical studies courses at secondary schools - classes that are fast disappearing from US curricula. The book is a protest against that sort of development - against white-collar culture and the educational system designed to populate it. Crawford, who has a PhD in political thought from the University of Chicago, takes America to task for devaluing skilled manual labour. Trade work, he argues, is more psychologically, intellectually and financially satisfying than the information-processing jobs for which students are typically prepared.
Just three days after publication, Shop Class reached number 23 on The New York Times bestseller list. And in the following three weeks, it went through five printings. When The New York Times Magazine ran a 5,000-word excerpt, readers responded on the newspaper's website with comments like: “Without doubt the best article that I have read in 13 years. Thank-you”; “This is a wonderful, thought-provoking piece. I read it with mixed emotions: elation, admiration, envy, empathy, inadequacy”; and “You have no idea how much this article means to me. I suspect - hope - it represents the beginning of a shift in thinking.” Americans, perhaps, have found their guide.