James Suzman

A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work, from the origins of life on Earth to our ever-more automated present 'A fascinating exploration that challenges our basic assumptions of what work means' Yuval Noah Harari 'One of those few books that will turn your customary ways of thinking upside down' Susan Cain The work we do brings us meaning, moulds our values, determines our social status and dictates how we spend most of our time. But this wasn't always the case: for 95% of our species' history, work held a radically different importance. How, then, did work become the central organisational principle of our societies? How did it transform our bodies, our environments, our views on equality and our sense of time? And why, in a time of material abundance, are we working more than ever before?

A History of how We Spend Our Time

Work

Old times -- The rewards of hard work -- The mother hill -- A beachside brawl -- The settlers -- Living in the moment -- Tsumkwe Road -- The provident environment -- The hollow tree -- Strong food -- An elephant hunt -- Pinnacle point -- A gift from God -- Hunting and empathy -- Insulting the meat -- New times -- When lions become dangerous -- Fear and farming -- Cattle country -- Crazy gods -- The promised land

What We Can Learn from the World's Most Successful Civilisation

Affluence Without Abundance

Arbeit ist der Kern unserer modernen Gesellschaften. Doch warum überlassen wir ihr einen so großen Teil unseres Lebens? Und warum arbeiten wir immer mehr, obwohl wir so viel produzieren wie noch nie? Entspricht das unserer Natur? Warum fühlen sich dann immer mehr Menschen überlastet und ausgebrannt? Unsere Steinzeit-Vorfahren arbeiteten weit weniger als wir. Sie arbeiteten, um zu leben und lebten nicht, um zu arbeiten. Und dennoch waren sie relativ gesund und wurden älter als die meisten Menschen, die ihnen nachfolgten. Erst die Sesshaftwerdung des Menschen und die zunehmende Arbeitsteilung in immer größer werdenden Städten schufen die Grundlage für unser heutiges Verhältnis zur Arbeit, zu unserer Umwelt und zu uns selbst. Doch was damals für das Überleben notwendig war, ist es in unserer heutigen Überflussgesellschaft längst nicht ehr. James Suzman liefert ein beeindruckendes Panorama von der Steinzeit bis zur Gegenwart, und lässt uns eine Welt neu denken, in der die Wachstumsideologie nicht mehr unser Leben und unseren Planeten aussaugt.

Eine andere Geschichte der Menschheit

Sie nannten es Arbeit

A History of How We Spend Our Time

een geschiedenis van de bezige mens

Werk

為工作而活：生存、勞動、追求幸福感，一部人類的工作大歷史

A Contemporary History of the Omaheke Bushmen

"Things from the Bush"

Μια ανατρεπτική καταγραφή της ιστορίας του ανθρώπινου είδους με άξονα την εργασία, από τις απαρχές της ζωής στη Γη μέχρι και το όλο και πιο αυτοματοποιημένο παρόν.

Εργασία - Η ιστορία του πώς περνάμε τον χρόνο μας

“Insightful and well-written . . . [Suzman chronicles] how much humankind can still learn from the disappearing way of life of the most marginalized communities on earth.” -Yuval Noah Harari, author of SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMAN KIND and HOMO DEUS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOMORROW WASHINGTON POST'S 50 NOTABLE WORKS OF NONFICTION IN 2017 AN NPR BEST BOOK OF 2017 A vibrant portrait of the “original affluent society”-the Bushmen of southern Africa-by the anthropologist who has spent much of the last twenty-five years documenting their encounter with modernity. If the success of a civilization is measured by its endurance over time, then the Bushmen of the Kalahari are by far the most successful in human history. A hunting and gathering people who made a good living by working only as much as needed to exist in harmony with their hostile desert environment, the Bushmen have lived in southern Africa since the evolution of our species nearly two hundred thousand years ago. In Affluence Without Abundance, anthropologist James Suzman vividly brings to life a proud and private people, introducing unforgettable members of their tribe, and telling the story of the collision between the modern global economy and the oldest hunting and gathering society on earth. In rendering an intimate picture of a people coping with radical change, it asks profound questions about how we now think about matters such as work, wealth, equality, contentment, and even time. Not since Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's The Harmless People in 1959 has anyone provided a more intimate or insightful account of the Bushmen or of what we might learn about ourselves from our shared history as hunter-gatherers.

The Disappearing World of the Bushmen

Werken, worden we er gelukkig van? Waarom draait eigenlijk alles in onze samenleving om werk? En hoe zou onze wereld eruitzien als werk een minder belangrijke rol zou spelen in ons dagelijks leven? In dit boek buigt James Suzman zich over de geschiedenis van de werkende mens. Werk definieert ons, het bepaalt waar we ons elke dag naartoe begeven en met wie we onze tijd doorbrengen. Het beïnvloedt onze manier van denken en onze eigenwaarde. Maar dat is niet altijd zo geweest. Economen voorspellen al langer dat we steeds meer vrije tijd zullen krijgen. Maar nu werk zo belangrijk is geworden, klinkt dat perspectief minder aanlokkelijk. James Suzman duikt in de geschiedenis van de werkende mens en laat ons zien dat werk altijd van grote betekenis is geweest, maar dat onze focus op productiviteit een relatief nieuw fenomeen is. Vanuit de geschiedenis werpen we een blik op de toekomst om te ontdekken dat het misschien wel tijd is voor een andere kijk op ons dagelijks werk.

Il lavoro: definisce la nostra posizione nella società, determina dove e con chi passeremo gran parte della nostra giornata, è il mediatore della nostra autostima e un mezzo per trasmettere i valori in cui crediamo. Se gli economisti moderni profetizzavano la progressiva scomparsa del giogo del lavoro, oggi siamo sempre più indaffarati e sempre più occupati, a discapito del tempo dedicato a noi stessi. Ma lavorare fa davvero parte della nostra natura?Per rispondere a questa domanda, James Suzman ripercorre la storia dell’umanità dalle origini ai nostri giorni, spaziando tra antropologia e zoologia, fisica e biologia evolutiva, economia e archeologia. Se è vero che oggi troviamo una realizzazione e uno scopo nel lavoro, i nostri antenati concepivano in modo molto diverso se stessi e il tempo a loro disposizione. Il mito odierno dell’occupazione, considerata quasi una virtù, è un’evoluzione relativamente recente nella nostra storia millenaria, che ha avuto origine con l’avvento dell’agricoltura e con la nascita delle città, con la domesticazione degli animali e, successivamente, con la comparsa delle macchine. Lavoro racconta come nei secoli si siano trasformati radicalmente non solo la nostra capacità di produzione e il nostro impatto sull’ambiente, ma anche i concetti stessi di noia, ozio e tempo libero, seguendo i mutamenti dettati da ideologie, religioni e scoperte scientifiche.A lungo abbiamo faticato per noi stessi e per gli altri – talvolta fino a morirne –, ci siamo chiesti se ne valesse la pena, abbiamo lottato per ricavare qualche ora di libertà da dedicare alle persone e alle cose che ci piacevano. Oggi, alle soglie di un’era che promette di automatizzare gran parte delle nostre attività, James Suzman ci invita a riflettere sui valori e desideri cui vogliamo dare spazio nell’uso che facciamo del tempo della nostra vita.

James Suzman

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