Human Work

"Human Work" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a detailed look at the way society and the economy work together, written during the early 1900s. The book examines how people organize themselves and how money moves around, shining a light on the idea of "work" and what it means for everyone. Gilman believes that misunderstandings about work and how we relate to each other cause a lot of problems and unhappiness. She suggests that if we understand labor better and give it the respect it deserves, we can make things better. The book starts by saying that the way we live together is incredibly important, but we often don't understand it well, and that many of our outdated societal views are the root cause of suffering, setting the stage for examining these economic ideas more closely in the rest of the book.