Provocative and enlightening; Richard Sennett's The Craftsman is an exploration of craftsmanship - the desire to do a job well for its own sake - as a template for living. Most of us have to work. But is work just a means to an end? In trying to make a living; have we lost touch with the idea of making things well? Pure competition; Sennett shows; will never produce good work. Instead; the values of the craftsman; whether in a Stradivari violin workshop or a modern laboratory; can enrich our lives and change the way we anchor ourselves in the world around us. The past lives of crafts and craftsmen show us ways of working - using tools; acquiring skills; thinking about materials - which provide rewarding alternative ways for people to utilise their talents. We need to recognize this if motivations are to be understood and lives made as fulfilling as possible. 'Lively; engaging and pertinent ... a lifetime's learning has gone into the writing of this book' Roger Scruton; Sunday Times 'An enchanting writer with important things to say' Fiona MacCarthy; Guardian 'Enthralling ... Sennett is keen to reconnect thinking with making; to revive the simple pleasure in the everyday object and the useful task. There is something here for all of us' Edwin Heathcote; Financial Times 'A masterpiece' Boyd Tonkin; Independent Richard Sennett's previous books include The Fall of Public Man; The Corrosion of Character; Flesh and Stone and Respect. He was founder director of the New York Institute for the Humanities; and is now University Professor at New York University and Academic Governor and Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics.