The Dignity of Working Men

Misbegotten since its conception, the Times Select wall is coming down and I'm delighted because I'll get to read David Brooks regularly.

I only happened upon Truck Stop Confidential  because  the Independent Women's Forum reprinted long excerpts.

"He has one of those hard jobs, like mining and steel-working, that comes with its own masculine mythology and way of being in the world. Jobs performed in front of a keyboard don’t supply a code of dignity, which explains the spiritual anxiety that plagues the service economy.

"As the trucker spoke, I was reminded of a book that came out a few years ago called ‘The Dignity of Working Men,’ by the sociologist, Michèle Lamont, who is now at Harvard. Lamont interviewed working-class men, and described what she calls ‘the moral centrality of work.’

"Her subjects placed tremendous emphasis on working hard, struggling against adversity and mastering their craft. Her book is an antidote to simplistic notions of class structure, because it makes clear that these men define who is above and below them in the pecking order primarily in moral, not economic terms. …

A code of dignity for working men.