Fiftieth Anniversary Of Time, Work, and Leisure

Abstract

Fiftieth Anniversary1 Of Time, Work, and Leisure Sebastian de Grazia The Twentieth Century Fund, 1962This year is the 50th anniversary of Sebastian de Grazia's Of Time, Work, and Leisure (1962), arguably one of the most important books on the subject of in the 20th century. Besides Thorstein Veblen's (1899/1994) Theory of the Leisure Class and Josef Pieper's (1952) Leisure, the Basis of Culture, 1 can think of nothing else that compares. I have no idea how familiar the most recent generation of students, educators, and professionals is with Of Time, Work, and Leisure and Sebastian de Grazia, a humanist scholar and political philosopher who received a Pulitzer Prize for Machiavelli in Hell (1989). I doubt if many students are, especially undergraduates. Indeed, I suspect that even in its prime Of Time, Work, and Leisure received greater exposure through the film of the same title featuring de Grazia in bowtie and with pipe. Nonetheless, Of Time, Work, and Leisure once had an audience in studies. I was introduced to it as an undergraduate nearly 40 years ago, starting my journey as a student of history and philosophy. Without Of Time, Work, and Leisure to open my eyes, I would have been unable to challenge students, colleagues, and myself to imagine something besides free time, the experience industry, or benefits-based recreation as the sum and substance of leisure.While I will Initially provide a thumbnail summary, I do not intend to conduct a standard book review. Frankly, besides recommending Of Time, Work, and Leisure to anyone interested in the study and practice of leisure, there is little I could write that would affect its deserved reputation as a classic in the literature of studies, de Grazia explores the enduring themes of work and with wit and erudition. His treatment of technology and consumerism foresees the future, though de Grazia's angst over the tyranny of the clock and shopping malls reads quaintly compared to cell phones and Black Friday rumbles at Walmart. Yet even if Of Time, Work, and Leisure were to regain an audience, my concern is that de Grazia's message and challenge would resonate very little in studies, and the inattention would just continue. Therefore, while taking another look at Of Time, Work, and Leisure, I will posit one reason why studies has been largely indifferent to de Grazia and classical leisure.A keen and sweeping study, Of Time, Work, and Leisure is about the rise and decline of the classical conception of leisure, including what it has meant for modern society, de Grazia argues that classical and modern conceptions of in two different worlds (p. 8). The world of modern is free time, amounting to time left over after employment (work) and other necessities, such as rest, self-maintenance, and domestic chores. The temporal space of modern mainly gets filled with hobbies, amusements, and health-sustaining recreation, de Grazia also notably includes consumer activity that people would deem free, but is manipulated by advertising. On the other hand, defined as from the necessity of being occupied (p. 14), classical only appears to resemble the modern view, de Grazia cautions, however, that free time or freedom from the necessity of labor is just the gateway to leisure. Beyond that gate is one of the great contributions of classical Greece to Western civilization-not just the idea of leisure, but the idea that is an ideal and thus an organizing principle of life, just as personal freedom and equality are modern ideals, de Grazia elaborates that leisure is a state of being in which activity is performed for its own sake, as its own end (p. 15), a way of living amounting to the good life, indeed the best possible life. Because human beings must live, economic activity (work) is necessary. Yet to live doing what is best in human nature-that life being most free, just, noble, beautiful, and pleasurable-requires and the capacity to use it rightly. …