Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots

Categories: History, Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropologist James Suzman traces the history of work from the first living things to the age of automation. He draws on decades of fieldwork among the Ju/'hoansi hunter-gatherers of southern Africa. Suzman shows that for most of human history people worked only a few hours a day. Farming, then cities and industry, made work a source of identity and endless striving. He asks whether automation could let us rethink our relationship to work.

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• Tony Fadell: “For those of you interested in how the human relationship with work has changed overtime (and how it's still changing), I highly recommend @anthrowittering's "Work".”