Overview

Has the American Dream become an unrealistic utopian fantasy, or have we simply forgotten what we are working for? In his topical book, Free Time, Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt examines the way that progress, once defined as more of the good things in life as well as more free time to enjoy them, has come to be understood only as economic growth and more work, forevermore. Hunnicutt provides an incisive intellectual, cultural, and political history of the original American Dream from the colonial days to the present. Taking his cue from Walt Whitmans higher progress, he follows the traces of that dream, cataloguing the myriad voices that prepared for and lived in an opening realm of freedom. Free Time reminds Americans of the forgotten, best part of the ""American Dreamthat more and more of our lives might be lived freely, with an enriching family life, with more time to enjoy nature, friendship, and the adventures of the mind and of the spirit. Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt is a Professor of Leisure Studies at the University of Iowa. He is also the author of Kellogg's Six-Hour Day and Work Without End: Abandoning Shorter Hours for the Right to Work (both Temple).

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9781439907146

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Reviews

Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt's new book could hardly be more timely. His central theme--that the American dream once was not confined merely to ever growing levels of abundance--is all the more relevant in an era of climate science denial and anti-environmentalism of various sorts. . . I had a hard time putting Free Time down. --John Buell, author of Politics, Religion, and Culture in an Anxious Age <br> <br>

Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt's new book could hardly be more timely. His central theme - that the American dream once was not confined merely to ever growing levels of abundance - is all the more relevant in an era of climate science denial and anti-environmentalism of various sorts... I had a hard time putting Free Time down. John Buell, author of Closing the Book on Homework: Enhancing Public Education and Freeing Family Time In his rather intriguing book, Hunnicutt examines the erosion of the pursuit of what today might be called 'quality time,' achieved by working just enough to provide basic sustenance... Hunnicutt traces the ways in which various Americans sought to limit the hours people worked... [He] concludes that with the post-WW II entrenchment of Franklin Roosevelt's 'Full-Time, Full-Employment' policy first introduced during the New Deal, and the increased commercialization and passivity of leisure, Americans have forgotten why and what they are working for. Summing Up: Recommended. --Choice, July 2013 Free Time is an impressive account of evolving thought about work, leisure, and progress in American history. It succeeds admirably in showing how prominent the shorter-hours vision was and provides many of the answers as to why that vision faded. Hunnicutt is thorough in documenting the various voices calling for Higher Progress through expanded leisure. --Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, September 2013 [T]hought-provoking and insightful... [R]eaders will be impressed by the depth and breadth of his analysis as Hunnicutt moves seamlessly between the words and deeds of public intellectuals, educators, and politicians to workers and labor leaders. Working class and (especially) labor historians, who often narrowly understand identity at the point of production, will surely benefit from Hunnicutt's analysis and the questions he asks, but scholars from a wide variety of fields and disciplines will also find this study useful and timely... Hunnicutt's analysis is wide-ranging and thorough... Valuable for scholars and students alike. --American History Review, December 2013 An academic study of the history of the campaign for the shorter working day in the U.S. - London Evening Standard Should we be talking about a shorter working day? I've just read a fantastic new book about the American labour movement in the late 19th and early 20th century. In Free Time: The Forgotten American Dream, Benjamin Hunnicutt, professor of leisure studies at the University of Iowa, shows that before they got bogged down demanding higher wages, stability and better conditions, unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World (also known as the Wobblies) lobbied for a progressive reduction in working hours. - Tom Hodgkinson, The Independent This week I have been reading Free Time: The Forgotten American Dream by Benjamin Kline Hunnicut, professor at the University of Iowa [...] I have found every word of this book inexpressibly thrilling [...] as is generally the case with free time today, the dominant powers want us to spend it in an orgy of passive consumption and TV-watching, when really we should be singing, dancing, reading and going for long walks. - Tom Hodgkinson, The Idler I reckon this book is a must-read. It's the EP Thompson of the American Labor (no u) movement. He shows how a shorter working day and week was its central focus till wrecked by Roosevelt's full-time, full employment movement. He also shows how unions from the fifties onwards colluded in the capitalist vision of long working weeks broken up by TV and shopping. Until we get rid of this myth of the good job there will be no progress. - Ian Bone Free Time's strength is in its eclectic exposition of American ideas about the value and necessity of free time... Thought-provoking. - The Journal of American History

Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt's new book could hardly be more timely. His central theme - that the American dream once was not confined merely to ever growing levels of abundance - is all the more relevant in an era of climate science denial and anti-environmentalism of various sorts... I had a hard time putting Free Time down. John Buell, author of Closing the Book on Homework: Enhancing Public Education and Freeing Family Time

Author Information

Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt is a Professor of Leisure Studies at the University of Iowa. He is also the author of Kellogg's Six-Hour Day and Work Without End: Abandoning Shorter Hours for the Right to Work (both Temple).

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