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Waiting for the Weekend

Name: Waiting for the Weekend
Author: Witold Rybczynski
ISBN: 9781441798176

by Witold Rybczynski, Wanda McCaddon (Narrated by)

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Overview

We work, Aristotle wrote, "in order to have leisure. " This is still true. But is the leisure that Aristotle spoke of—the freedom to do nothing—the same leisure we look forward to each weekend? There have always been breaks from the routine of work—taboo days, public festivals, holy days—we couldn't survive without them. Here, Witold Rybczynski unfolds the history and evolution of leisure time in Western civilization, from Aristotle to the present. Along the way, he explores how the psychological needs that leisure time seeks to fulfill have changed as the nature of work has changed.

Aristotle wrote that we work in order to have leisure. But is the leisure that Aristotle spoke of--the freedom to do nothing--the same as the leisure we look forward to each weekend? With fascinating anecdotal detail, Rybczynski unfolds the history of leisure from ancient Rome to the Enlightenment to today, explores the origins of the week and the weekend, and illuminates its profound influences on our lives.

About the Author, Witold Rybczynski

Witold Rybczynski has written about architecture for the New York Times, Time, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and Slate, and is the author of the award-winning A Clearing in the Distance. He is the recipient of the National Building Museum's 2007 Vincent Scully Prize. He lives with his wife in Philadelphia, where he teaches at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.

WANDA MCCADDON has narrated well over six hundred titles for major audiobook publishers and has earned sixteen Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Rybczynski ( Home ) traces the evolution of the seven-day week back to the Babylonian calendar and, more recently, to the Great Depression, when the two-day weekend became institutionalized in the U.S., with shorter work hours viewed as an antidote to unemployment. The common 19th-century European practice of ``keeping Saint Monday,'' or not working on Monday, paved the way for the modern weekend, which the author sees as a reflection of our mechanized culture: ``We want the freedom to be leisurely, but we want it regularly . . . like clockwork.'' In an enchanting, strikingly profound meditation on the relationship between leisure and labor, Rybczynski investigates holy days, precursors of modern holidays, and sketches a social history of reading, TV-watching and gardening. His beautifully written book is full of interesting tidbits: the Japanese language has no word for leisure; 22 million Americans work more than 49 hours a week. (Aug.)

Library Journal

In the form of a long, extended essay, the author discusses the emergence of the two-day weekend from the 19th century to the present. Successive chapters trace the historical origins of the week; days of rest throughout history; sacred and secular time; the boundary between leisure and work; the nature of leisure; the make-believe world of weekend retreats; controversy over the purpose of leisure; the present reorganization and standardization of work throughout the modern world, in which leisure now fulfills unmet work needs; and differences in national attitudes to leisure. The author draws on the works of Aristotle, Bertrand Russell, Jane Austen, Lewis Mumford, and others. This witty, readable, well-researched study with extensive notes and suggestions for further reading is certain to stimulate thinking. Recommended for general collections as well as history, sociology, business, and urban studies. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/91.-- Lesley Jorbin, Cleveland State Univ. Lib.