Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America

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Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 16, 2006 - History - 384 pages

From the author of Crying, a witty, wide-ranging cultural history of our attitudes toward work—and getting out of it

Couch potatoes, goof-offs, freeloaders, good-for-nothings, loafers, and loungers: ever since the Industrial Revolution, when the work ethic as we know it was formed, there has been a chorus of slackers ridiculing and lampooning the pretensions of hardworking respectability. Reviled by many, heroes to others, these layabouts stretch and yawn while the rest of society worries and sweats. Whenever the world of labor changes in significant ways, the pulpits, politicians, and pedagogues ring with exhortations of the value of work, and the slackers answer with a strenuous call of their own: "To do nothing," as Oscar Wilde said, "is the most difficult thing in the world." From Benjamin Franklin's "air baths" to Jack Kerouac's "dharma bums," Generation-X slackers, and beyond, anti-work-ethic proponents have held a central place in modern culture.

Moving with verve and wit through a series of fascinating case studies that illuminate the changing place of leisure in the American republic, Doing Nothing revises the way we understand slackers and work itself.

 

Contents

THE IDLER AND HIS WORKS
56
LOUNGERS ROMANTICS AND RIP VAN WINKLE
76
LOAFERS COMMUNISTS DRINKERS AND BOHEMIANS
103
NERVE CASES SAUNTERERS TRAMPS AND FLÂNEURS
141
SPORTS FLAPPERS BABBITTS AND BUMS
176
BEATS NONCONFORMISTS PLAYBOYS AND DELINQUENTS
215
DRAFT DODGERS SURFERS TV BEATNIKS
247
SLACKERS
281
Bibliography
321
Index
355
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About the author (2006)

Tom Lutz 's previous books include Crying: A Natural and Cultural History of Tears; American Nervousness, 1903: An Anecdotal History; and
Cosmopolitan Vistas. He lives in Los Angeles.

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