Drawing from a fascinating range of sources, from Richard Scarry to Siri Hustvedt, from historians to trade unionists, philosophers and crucially, to hours of original research through workshops, Hilary Cottam writes of the history of work and new ways of looking at work.

She says: `We live in revolutionary times: a technology revolution, an ecological crisis and the challenges of deep injustice are threatening to tear the established order apart.' Work has been for decades, narrowly thought of as an economic category. She shows this to be a category error: work is culture. She writes of work as a cultural revolution which will alter the meaning and the place of work in all our lives. Crucially, she is an optimist who believes we can work better and therefore live better too.