A young worker at the C & NW RR 40th Street shops, Chicago, Ill, photograph by Jack Delano, 1942. Library of Congress.

A young worker at the C & NW RR 40th Street shops, Chicago, Illinois, 1942. Photograph by Jack Delano. Library of Congress.

Lines of Work

Volume IV, Number 2 | spring 2011

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Women become skilled shop technicians after careful training in the school at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant, Long Beach, CA, photograph by Alfred T. Palmer, 1942. Library of Congress.

Preamble

The Servant Problem

By Lewis H. Lapham

It is man’s nature to be doing something, or at least to fancy that he’s doing something, but to what purpose?

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Pushing Paper

By Ben Kafka

Paperwork has never fit comfortably into our idea of what work means—it has no heroes and few sympathies.

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Map

Cornering the Market

The countries that rule the industries.

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458 BC | Rome

Public Servant

Cincinnatus, from farmer to dictator to farmer.More

1802 | Manchester

Satanic Mill

Robert Southey observes the unsettling status quo.More

c. 335 BC | Henan

Skilled Labor

A Chinese butcher masters his craft.More

Charts & Graphs

The Worst Jobs in the World

A matrix of unsavory employment.

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American journalist Susan Orlean.

American author Tom Wolfe.

Engraving of Pliny the Elder.

Bust of Marcus Aurelius

Freelance writer and former academic ghostwriter Dave Tomar.

Black and white photograph of German-language writer Franz Kafka.

American author Steven Millhauser.

Ukrainian-born Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol.

Labor is no disgrace.

—Hesiod, c. 700 BC

Color painting early Chinese philosopher Mengzi.

Black and white photograph of a young John Ruskin wearing a suit.

Mencius & John Ruskin

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