Allister Heath

Practice Makes Perfect

The Craftsman

By

Allen Lane / The Penguin Press 3w25pp £25 order from our bookshop

This is the sort of book I wish had been written a long time ago. For all its limitations, and it has many, Richard Sennett’s latest tome is nevertheless the best exposition yet of why work can be a good thing in and of itself and not just as a means to earning a living. At a time when it has become fashionable to create an almost automatic dichotomy between ‘work’ and ‘life’, Sennett’s paean to craftsmanship helps to show that the reality is more complicated. 

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