{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","uuid":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","normalized_title":"timeforthingslaborleisureandtheriseofmassconsumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","isbns":["9780674250529","9780674250536","9780674979512"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":355,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Time%20for%20Things%20Labor%2C%20Leisure%2C%20and%20the%20Rise%20of%20Mass%20Consumption","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/search"},"page":{"printed_page":5,"pdf_page":13,"physical_index":13,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"45a39c5b8400cce9d6efa9a1fbfb4094dfb0c72fa6ddb240f441580d3e928abf"},"chapter":"FOR","content":"Bringing the concerns of Marx together with those of Weber, the question of the unbounded and irrational character of capitalist modernity was also a central concern for later generations of Marxists, most prominently those belonging to the Frankfurt School. They asked: How is it that the accumulation of wealth and refinement of technique, which should be merely a means to the end of the good life, become in efect ends unto themselves? Why, under capitalist modernity, does instrumental rationality become so systemically entrenched, unable to mature (as Keynes thought it would do) to the point of becoming (as reason suggests it should be) just a means to a higher purpose? True to their Marxian roots, the Frankfurt theorists tended to focus on cultural forms generated by the organization of the relations of production—yet they clearly also saw that without mass consumption modern industrial capitalism could not function.\n\nThe stakes in the puzzle represented by this configuration of ever-increasing production and consumption are, of course, very high given the extraordinarily urgent environmental problems of our age. Despite much talk about deindustrialization, the shift to services, and the rise of the “knowledge economy” under late capitalism, the capitalist system of production and consumption is pressing harder than ever against the limits of nature. So not only is the materialistic bias of capitalism questionable from the proximate perspective of the well-being it yields, but it in addition threatens the longterm future of the species.\n\nThis book is an extended investigation of this puzzle. My objectives are to delineate its conceptual structure, analyze its empirical basis, and build a historically grounded theory in light of which the puzzling pattern of work, productivity, and consumption becomes less puzzling. I follow the tradition, rooted equally, although in very diferent ways, in Marx and Weber, of doing social theory by thinking about history. While I consider general trends under capitalism in the industrial world, the empirical side of the book focuses on the United States, especially during the middle decades of the twentieth century.\n\nIntroduction\n\n5","previous_page":null,"next_page":6}