Muirhead confronts often contradictory elements of the modern working life, from the frustration of slaving away in order to merely survive in a meaningless consumerist cycle to the questionable justice of outsourcing labor that pays foreign workers pennies...Muirhead reveals that the question of just work, even in our modern capitalist society, is still very much aligned with the ancient question of 'the good.'
   --Publishers Weekly

Muirhead blends sociological, economic, and philosophical perspectives into a comprehensive analysis of the purpose and importance of work as part of life. He carefully considers the importance of person-job fit and emphasizes the personal value to individuals of finding fulfilling work and how the absence of meaningful work can negatively impact social justice...Well written and interesting.
   --T. Gutteridge, Choice

Muirhead's clearly and concisely written book is well worth reading for what it has to say about the nature of work in modern America, and the prospects for improving our relationship to it.
   --David L. Stebenne, Labor History

Muirhead makes a contribution to both the scholarship and the general public understanding of what's happening to work in modern society. He writes well, and has something important to say about the partial satisfactions of working life, and the balances between work, family, and community.
   --Richard Sennett, author of Respect in a World of Inequality

In this original and provocative book, Muirhead argues that justice in work is more than a matter of fair wages and decent working conditions; it is also a matter of fit--between the work we do and the persons we are. With a clear and distinctive voice, Muirhead revives work as a subject for political theory and illuminates the ethics of everyday life.
   --Michael Sandel, author of Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy

Russell Muirhead is Associate Professor of Government, The University of Texas at Austin.