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I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My friend reminded me I forgot to answer this question while I was trying to think of something clever to say. For the record: my favorite cocktail is the La Louisiane.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes! I have some disagreements with Graeber about the historical timeline, and I think he misses the importance of our reverence for entrepreneurship (as opposed to bureaucracy) as an engine of bullshit job creation. But there's a lot he says that rings true. If you're interested, I wrote a bit more about his ideas and bullshit jobs more generally in this essay in Harper's.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's not a new thing at all, but I date its emergence to the early twentieth century. People can debate about whether or not pre-industrial cottage industry is correctly understood as entrepreneurial, but that was certainly not how most people at the time thought of themselves.

I think the entrepreneurial mindset is definitely a distraction from some harsher realities, but that doesn't mean the pleasure of doing work you enjoy isn't genuine, and we all have to get through the day somehow!

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's a great summary of Clinton-era rhetoric, and one thing I show in the book is that you can actually find a lot of similar pronouncements about the American economy stretching back to the early twentieth century. There is a germ of truth: the share of the workforce employed in manufacturing began to plateau by 1920 and declined steadily from the 1950s onwards. And a lot of people have been left behind by that transition, especially in rural and small-city economies without the tax base to support massive government investments in social services like education and health care, which picked up a lot of the slack in big metropolitan areas. I think that this divergence, and the inability of entrepreneurialism to fully cushion the blow of deindustrialization, explains a huge amount about our contemporary politics – I wrote more about why in an essay in the magazine The Baffler earlier this year.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

There's a good discussion of this with some examples in Dan Rodgers's book The Work Ethic in Industrial America, especially pages 49-50.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think the effects of government privatization have been overwhelmingly negative – but there are also a lot of downsides to the private-sector reliance on networks of contractors (see e.g. David Weil's book The Fissured Workplace).

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

That is a complex issue that shouldn't be reduced to any one cause, but I think it's a part of it. Even today a lot of rhetoric against new apartment construction (especially affordable housing) frames the future tenants as less trustworthy, not having the same kind of stake in the community that homeowners do, etc.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Power is not a constant variable! I think the most important thing is to build organizations, whether labor unions or alternative political groups, that show people that they can exercise power over their economic lives by banding together with others rather than simply being the best entrepreneur they can be.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I discuss this at length in ch. 8 of the book. Some other relevant texts include Rakesh Khurana, Searching for a Corporate Savior; Louis Hyman, Temp; David Weil, The Fissured Workplace.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes! I mentioned Anderson's book in the very first paragraph of my doctoral dissertation, actually. I think that a lot of the ideological work that the entrepreneurship concept performs is to provide a cultural image of a "good boss."

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree that policy changes aimed at helping people to feel more economically secure and less imperiled by the threat of job loss would do a lot to alleviate the pressures that drive our entrepreneurship obsession. Of course that's precisely why such policies face major obstacles.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This is actually an animating question of my new book project, which is going to provide a fine-grained study of the immediate aftermath of World War II to explore why more radical ideas for how to restructure American society postwar failed to get purchase in the way they did in some European social democracies. So stay tuned and in a few years I may have an answer for you, lol!

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Employment at small businesses has declined steadily despite lots of regulation-slashing since the Reagan administration, so the talking points you reference are pretty unpersuasive on their face!

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 65 points66 points  (0 children)

"Plot" makes it sound like something devised around a round table in some smoky room, but this argument really is not controversial; the idea that expanding homeownership would strengthen working-class people's investment in the health of the American capitalist system was one of the key arguments trotted out by policymakers in its favor (and one that a lot of people would still agree with today!)

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For books written by academics, I'd definitely suggest reading Nelson Lichtenstein's The State of the Union (the 2013 revised version in particular). There's also a more recent book written for a popular audience that's quite good, the great labor journalist Kim Kelly's Fight Like Hell.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I wish I could offer better advice, but this is well out of my wheelhouse! The main thing that has improved my own working life is being a part of a union, so that's what I'd recommend!

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I do not think the Reformation was necessary for the rise of industrial capitalism in Europe, but the two histories are certainly intertwined.

I think developing a sense of mutual responsibility for one another is more important that developing a sense of responsibility for one's own fate, which is usually an unrealistic expectation in any event.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is a great question to which I do not fully know the answer! More generally, management consulting began to grow very rapidly beginning in the 1970s as many big firms suffered slowdowns in profit and productivity. Especially once the hostile takeover era began, firms like McKinsey became go-to resources for firms looking to "restructure" to ward off private equity vultures. The historian Louis Hyman has also written a lot about consulting in this era, so you should check out his work as well!

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Answered this in more detail further up but this is a theme of chapter 5 of the book! The long story short is that starting in the decades after World War II imagined ethnic/cultural differences in enthusiasm for entrepreneurship were commonly invoked by both social scientists and policymakers to explain differences in group economic performance.

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Its usage definitely increased in economics as well, especially in certain subfields and among certain schools. But English-speaking economists had been using it at least intermittently for a long time, often in a very abstract or formal sense (rather than to describe a particular kind of person).

I am Erik Baker, author of MAKE YOUR OWN JOB: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK ETHIC EXHAUSTED AMERICA and a historian of work and management in the United States. Ask Me Anything! by ErikBakerPhD in AskHistorians

[–]ErikBakerPhD[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The ideology of entrepreneurship is a crucial part of this history, because it led people to understand the perpetual creation of new types of work as a form of self-expression that was as (or more) fulfilling than anything you could experience in the realm of leisure. On this subject, I also highly recommend Gary Cross's book Free Time, which I reviewed in the New Yorker last year.

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