The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind

551 Pages·2021·22.968 MB·English

by  Lucassen, Jan

THE STORY OF WORK
i
ii
THE STORY
OF WORK
A New History
of Humankind
JAN LUCASSEN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
iii
Copyright © 2021 Jan Lucassen
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(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and
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Set in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd
Printed in Great Britain by TJ Books, Padstow, Cornwall
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021935440
ISBN 978-0-300-25679-6
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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CONTENTS
List of illustrations, maps and figures vi
Preface ix
A note on histories, methods and theories of work xiii
Introduction 1
1 Humans at work, 700,000–12,000 years ago 15
2 Farming and division of labour, 10000–5000 bce 46
3 Emerging labour relations, 5000–500 bce 75
4 Working for the market, 500 bce–1500 ce 115
5 Globalization of labour relations, 1500–1800 193
6 Converging labour relations, 1800 to now 292
7 The changing significance of work, 1800 to now 362
Outlook 423
Notes 438
Bibliography 469
Index 507
v
ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND FIGURES
Plate section
1. Communal hunting: Joseph Lycett, ‘Aborigines using fire to hunt kanga-
roos’, c. 1817, from Views in Australia; or New South Wales and Van
Diemen’s Land Delineated (London: J. Souter, 1824). National Library of
Australia, PIC MS STRONG ROOM 12/1/4 #R5689.
2. From hunting-gathering to agriculture: later Han tomb chamber deco-
ration, 25–220. Sichuan Provincial Museum, Chengdu, China. Granger
Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo.
3. Grain harvest in Ancient Egypt (Luxor, 1390–1380 BCE): tomb of
Menna, Luxor (Theban Tombs TT69). DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI / Getty
Images.
4. Maritime and port work for Rome: sestertius of Emperor Nero, 54–68.
Brussels National Library, coin cabinet (photo Johan van Heesch).
5. Working the land in North Africa, 200–25: mosaic in a villa.
Archaeological Museum of Cherchell, Algeria. DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI /
Getty Images.
6. Glass making, c. 1400: tinted grisaille drawings on green parchment.
British Library, Add. Ms. 24189, fol. 16r. © British Library Board. All
Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images.
7. Working Aztec children: page from the Codex Mendoza, 1541.
8. Goa washermen and women: page from the Códice Casanatense,
c. 1540. Biblioteca Casanatense. The Códice Casanatense / CC0 1.0.
9. Guild procession: miniature from the Surname-i Hümayun, 1582.
Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Istanbul, Hazine 1344, fols. 338b–39a.
10. Dutchman with his Indonesian slave in Japan: polychromatic wood-
block print, published by Yamatoya Publishing House, Nagasaki, c. 1800.
IISH, NEHA # Japanese prints, Box 2, no. 12. International Institute of
Social History (Amsterdam).
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ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND FIGURES
11. Slaves washing for diamonds: etching after T. Webster after J. Mawe,
1815. Photo 12 / Getty Images.
12. Cottage industry, sericulture: ‘Rikuchū no kuni yōsan no zu. 6’. Colour
woodcut by Hiroshige III, published by Nihonbashi, Tokyo, c. 1877.
University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special
Collections. Asian Rare-6 no. L2:1.
13. May Day: ‘Labour’s May Day dedicated to the workers of the world’
propagating the 8-hour working day, by Walter Crane. Coloured edition
in German, Austria, 1897. IISH Amsterdam IISG # BG C3/900.
International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam).
14. Pay day at the Braat machine-building plant: Gedenkboek van de
N.V. Machinefabriek Braat te Soerabaja 1901–1921 (Batavia, 1921).
IISH-NEHA, Amsterdam # Collection NV Machinefabriek Braat
(Soerabaja) ARCH03606. International Institute of Social History
(Amsterdam).
15. Soviet work propaganda: poster design by Gustav Klutsis, 1932; photog-
rapher S. Blochin; publisher Ogiz-Izogiz, Moscow/Leningrad. IISH,
Amsterdam, # USSR, 1932 – BG E12/680–1. International Institute of
Social History (Amsterdam).
16. China work propaganda: poster design by Jin Zhaofang, July 1954.
Serial no. 538, IISH, Amsterdam # China, 1954 – BG E16/627.
International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam).
17. Ford assembly line: Ford’s 10 millionth Model T, 4 June 1924. Shawshots /
Alamy Stock Photo.
18. Control room: fossil fuel power plant in Point Tupper, Nova Scotia, 27
May 2007.
In text
Introduction. Washing day on the street, Lindenstraat, Amsterdam, 1951.
Photo Ben van Meerendonk. International Institute of Social History
(Amsterdam).
Chapter 1. Hadza woman digs for edible tubers. John Warburton-Lee
Photography / Alamy Stock Photo.
Chapter 2. Uruk-period (4000–3100 BCE) seal. Yale Babylonian Collection,
NBC 2579.
Chapter 3. Victory stele of a king of Akkad (2300 BCE). Louvre Museum,
GNU Free Documentation License, CC BY 3.0.
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ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND FIGURES
Chapter 4. Women and men mining for silver (Bohemia/Saxony), woodcut
by Blasius Freming in Georgius Agricola, Vom Bergkwerck XII (Basel:
Froben, 1557). International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam).
Chapter 5. Pieter van Laer, Pigs and Donkeys, plate 4 from the series Different
Animals, Italy, 1636. Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam).
Chapter 6. Detail of an illustration of Coster’s diamond factory on
Zwanenburgerstraat, Amsterdam Eigen Haard, 1875. International
Institute of Social History (Amsterdam).
Chapter 7. Basti Bagirova at the cotton harvest, Azerbaijan, 1950. De Brug /
Djambatan 27b, no. 5469, Photo Hans Luhrs, International Institute of
Social History (Amsterdam).
Outlook. Frans Masereel, The Ideal Producer of the Future, in La Feuille,
27 October 1919. International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam).
Maps
1. Spread of modern hunter-gatherers from 70,000 years ago. 23
2. Origins of domestication and spread of some grains and 47
goat/sheep.
3. Oldest cities (population centres) and polities. 76
4. Deep monetization, 500 BCE–400 CE. 128
5. Important labour relations in the sixteenth century. 195
6. Unfree labour and labour migrations in the nineteenth century. 306
Figures
1. The shifts in labour relations outlined in this book. 13
2. Modern humans as hunter-gatherers until 10,000 years ago. 22
3. The evolution of different labour relations, 5000–500 BCE. 78
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PREFACE
The idea for this book emerged in the 1990s, in that optimistic period
after the fall of the Berlin Wall. State socialism had failed, and with it, appar-
ently, the idea that the exploited worker could only find liberation in a totally
‘classless’ society. Instead, a new utopian dream began to emerge. This started
in the West but was quickly embraced globally, with the same enthusiasm
with which Coca-Cola had been welcomed worldwide. From now on, it
seemed, we would be able to earn our money as independent entrepreneurs,
hiring out our creative talents to the highest bidder. We would have to work
perhaps only a few hours a day, or even a week. We would be so successful
that, ultimately, we would have time – vast expanses of delicious leisure time.
Our life would be defined by consumption, not by production.
In this utopia, crucially, only losers work for someone else; the new, true
individuals are the self-employed and the entrepreneurs, and everyone
craves a ‘portfolio’ career. And, while the banking crises of 2008 and, more
recently, the global coronavirus pandemic have tempered enthusiasm some-
what, this utopia is still alive and kicking, if only because of the lack of a
serious challenger. The entrepreneur is a hero, the ordinary worker a slave.
Such a misconception is widespread because it does not reside only
among champions of the ‘free’ market; it is just as much a source for left-
wing utopian thinking, which, of course, does not trumpet independent
entrepreneurship but rather glorifies wage labour for the community and,
with it, the notion of well-earned free time.
I have become increasingly vexed by this view of conventional working
people as either exploited victims or as uninventive and unimaginative dull-
ards. Not that I have anything against the entrepreneurial spirit of the indi-
vidual. But is work – and by that I refer specifically to wage labour or small
businesses absent from the utopian vistas of boundless expansion – a dying
occupation? Is the history of the work of the ordinary man and woman no
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