LEISURE AND LEGITIMATION

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this essay we argue that the historical redefinition of leisure in the United States roughly corresponds to the extension of commodity relations in U.S. society. We show how the negative view of leisure, traditionnally associated with the Puritan ethic, was deeply reinforced by the requirements of wage labor during the early stages of capital accumulation. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the maturation of a distinctively capitalist mode of consumption based on commodity relations in conjunction with the shifting requirements of the accumulation system had the effect of making leisure more individuated and consumable. The meaning of leisure was thus enhanced, and this enhanced meaning of leisure began to emerge as a means of legitimating first, the conditions of work, and later the operation of the U.S. political and economic system. In the present era appeals to freedom, individuality and well-being, once grounded in the supposed virtues of the free market and the public sphere,...