Part manifesto, part manual, this book offers historians of all levels both subject and approach. The subject is work. In every place-time people made and sold objects – and struggled with annoying customers or government regulation. They healed clients – and wanted to bolster their prestige and keep out interlopers. Studying work allows historians to delve into the experiences of non-elite groups using texts, images, or objects. The wide-ranging approach is based on the Chicago-school sociology of occupations, which starts from the premise that work isn’t just a job: it’s a drama created by people making decisions that shape and are shaped by their place-time. Packed with examples from Ming Chinese apothecaries to twentieth-century New York City doormen, this book is a must for those who want to enliven their study of the past by examining how people spent most of their days and lives: at work.

Sarah Schneewind is Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. She specializes in state-society relations in Ming China, but is interested in the work experiences of people everywhere, throughout time. She edits the Amsterdam University Press series Histories of Everyday Life Across the World.

Preface
Introduction
Chapter One: Technique and the Object of Technique
Chapter Two: The Players in the Social Drama of Work
Chapter Three: Dirty Work
Chapter Four: The Path into the Occupation
Chapter Five: Self-Regulation and Public Relations (Code and Policy)
Chapter Six: Social Authority (License and Mandate)
Chapter Seven: Technique and Danger (Guilty Knowledge)
Chapter Eight: Mistakes at Work
Chapter Nine: Pace and Discipline
Chapter Ten: The Family Workshop
Conclusion