| 9780374228446 |
| (hardback) |
| 0374228442 |
Available:*
Library | Material Type | Call Number | Shelf Location | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Cheyenne Library | Book | 331.44 S386O | Nonfiction | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Can working parents in America--or anywhere--ever find true leisure time?
According to the Leisure Studies Department at the University of Iowa, true leisure is "that place in which we realize our humanity." If that's true, argues Brigid Schulte, then we're doing dangerously little realizing of our humanity. In Overwhelmed , Schulte, a staff writer for The Washington Post , asks: Are our brains, our partners, our culture, and our bosses making it impossible for us to experience anything but "contaminated time"?
Schulte first asked this question in a 2010 feature for The Washington Post Magazine : "How did researchers compile this statistic that said we were rolling in leisure--over four hours a day? Did any of us feel that we actually had downtime? Was there anything useful in their research--anything we could do?"
Overwhelmed is a map of the stresses that have ripped our leisure to shreds, and a look at how to put the pieces back together. Schulte speaks to neuroscientists, sociologists, and hundreds of working parents to tease out the factors contributing to our collective sense of being overwhelmed, seeking insights, answers, and inspiration. She investigates progressive offices trying to invent a new kind of workplace; she travels across Europe to get a sense of how other countries accommodate working parents; she finds younger couples who claim to have figured out an ideal division of chores, childcare, and meaningful paid work. Overwhelmed is the story of what she found out.
Author Notes
Brigid Schulte is a journalist for The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine, and was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize. Her first book, Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, was published in 2014.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
On her quest to turn her "time confetti" into "time serenity," journalist Schulte finds that, while it's worse for women and hits working mothers the hardest, what she calls the "Overwhelm" cuts across gender, income, and nationality to contaminate time, shrink brains, impair productivity, and reduce happiness. Investigating the "great speed-up" of modern life, Schulte surveys the "time cages" of the American workplace, the "stalled gender revolution" in the home, and the documented necessity for play, and discovers that the "aimless whirl" of American life runs on a conspiracy of "invisible forces": outdated notions of the Ideal Worker; the cult of motherhood; antiquated national family policies; and the "high status of busyness." The result is our communal "time sickness." Schulte takes a purely practical and secular approach to a question that philosophers and spiritual teachers have debated for centuries-how to find meaningful work, connection, and joy-but her research is thorough and her conclusions fascinating, her personal narrative is charmingly honest, and the stakes are high: the "good life" pays off in "sustainable living, healthy populations, happy families, good business, [and] sound economies." While the final insights stretch thin, Schulte unearths the attitudes and "powerful cultural expectations" responsible for our hectic lives, documents European alternatives to the work/family balance, and handily summarizes her solutions in an appendix. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Journalist Schulte manages to take a fairly pedestrian topic, the value of leisure in modern American society, and turn it into a compelling narrative on work, play, and personal achievement. Liberally peppered with her own experiences as a wife, mother, and Washington Post reporter, this artful blend of memoir and cultural exploration asks hard questions about how to create a well-lived life. Is leisure a waste of time, or the only time to live fully present? Are we more concerned about a purpose-driven experience, or bogged down in banal busyness? Schulte, juggling the demands of children and work while facing conflicts with her spouse over familial responsibilities, realizes that she is mired in busyness. Her discussions with a wide range of experts clarify her concerns and open her mind to the manufactured madness of a competitive culture and the false promise of the ruthlessly dedicated ideal worker. Schulte follows every lead to uncover why Americans are so determined to exhaust themselves for work and what has been lost in the process. For Lean In (2013) fans, and everyone who feels overwhelmed.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2014 Booklist
Table of Contents
| Part 1 Time Confetti | |
| 1 The Test of Time | p. 3 |
| 2 Leisure is for Nuns | p. 21 |
| 3 Too Busy to Live | p. 41 |
| 4 The Incredible Shrinking Brain | p. 56 |
| Part 2 Work | |
| 5 The Ideal Worker is Not Your Mother | p. 71 |
| 6 A Tale of Two Pats | p. 97 |
| Bright Spot: Starting Small | p. 117 |
| 7 When Work Works | p. 123 |
| Bright Spot: If The Pentagon Can Do It, Why Can't You? | p. 145 |
| Part 3 Love | |
| 8 The Stalled Gender Revolution | p. 153 |
| 9 The Cult of Intensive Motherhood | p. 172 |
| Bright Spot: Mother Nature | p. 190 |
| 10 New Dads | p. 197 |
| Bright Spot: Gritty, Happy Kids | p. 205 |
| Part 4 Play | |
| 11 Hygge in Denmark | p. 213 |
| 12 Let Us Play | p. 232 |
| Bright Spot: Really Plana Vacation | p. 249 |
| Part 5 Toward Time Serenity | |
| 13 Finding Time | p. 255 |
| Bright Spot: Time Horizons | p. 272 |
| 14 Toward Time Serenity | p. 274 |
| Appendix: Do One Thing | p. 279 |
| Notes | p. 287 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 333 |
| Index | p. 339 |
