SOCIAL SCIENCES

Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America

by Erik Baker
Harvard Univ. Jan. 2025. 352p. ISBN 9780674293601. $35. BUS
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Debut author Baker (science history, Harvard Univ.; associate editor, The Drift) presents a solid, detailed intellectual history of how work ethic and entrepreneurship developed in the United States. His book documents the rise and dominance of capital-intensive industry employment during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Eventually, labor shifted from making capital goods to consumer products and services. This in turn led to workers being encouraged both to view work as an end in itself and to see themselves as potential entrepreneurs. Baker offers many examples of entrepreneurs, like Henry Ford, and multilevel marketing companies, such as Amway, that influenced concepts of hard work. He also addresses economic insecurity and inequalities.
VERDICT Baker’s book demonstrates how the entrepreneurial spirit evolved in the U.S. to create today’s gig economy. It will appeal to both entrepreneurial readers and students of the history of entrepreneurship.
Reviewed by Shmuel Ben-Gad , Dec 01, 2024
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