Baker’s thesis is rousingly novel and ingeniously fine-grained ... Not dry, insular or detached from everyday concerns. Although it is thoroughly researched and rigorously conceived, it is also gripping. This is history with urgent stakes and real consequences.
Less concerned with the chronological development of American entrepreneurship than with the idea of it—the ways in which 'ordinary people have thought about their working lives' and how entrepreneurialism has become a value unto itself. Baker aims to track the anxieties and desires of a society undergoing epochal transitions and the evolution of what he calls 'the entrepreneurial work ethic'.
Baker delivers a deeply researched and timely exploration on the origins of America’s obsession with entrepreneurship, and how the corporate class has leveraged this obsession to reshape our economic landscape for the worse ... Striking insights ... A bracing reminder that our current work culture is neither natural nor immutable.
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.
