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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Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan, by Diego Velázquez, 1630. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Lost Tools

By Donovan Hohn

A tour of the antique tool trade confirms that they just don’t make things like they used to.

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Map

Cornering the Market

The countries that rule the industries.

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1828 | North Carolina

A Case of Sexual Harassment

Avoiding the predations of one’s enslaver.More

2010 | Los Angeles

Quality Control

A guide to being naturally beautiful at work.More

c. 1923 | Paris

Mutual Interest

The courting of Marie Curie.More

Charts & Graphs

Detail of world map with numbered list

Workers of the World Unite

Labor unions and strikes throughout time.

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American journalist Susan Orlean.

Roman playwright Terence.

French author Émile Zola.

Image of Japanese poet and essayist Yoshida Kenko.

Black and white photograph of American novelist John Steinbeck.

Chinese-American journalist Leslie T. Chang.

Italian literary critic and novelist Umberto Eco.

Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.

—Ulysses S. Grant, 1877

Color portrait of German theologian and reformer Martin Luther.

British philosopher, logician, and social critic Bertrand Russell.

Martin Luther & Bertrand Russell

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Lapham’sDaily

Roundtable

Lapham’s Quarterly Is on Hiatus

By Lapham’s Quarterly

But the American Agora Foundation is already planning for the future. More

The Colosseum, attributed to Robert Eaton, c. 1855.

DÉjÀ Vu

Monumental Mistakes

2023:

Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.

c. 1850:

Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.

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Terracotta funerary plaque, Greek, Attic, c. 520 BC.

The World in Time

Robert D. Kaplan

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power. More

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