{"product_id":"take-back-your-time-isbn-9781576752456","title":"Take Back Your Time","description":"\u003cb\u003eA look at the impact of time famine in America and how ordinary citizens can turn things around to achieve a more balanced life for themselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eForget oil or gold time is the most precious commodity in America today. Americans have less free time than anyone else in the industrialized world. In fact, modern Americans work longer hours than medieval peasants. Here, well known experts and writers explore the effects of overwork, over-scheduling, time pressure, and stress on our health, relationships, children, the environment, and more. These renowned authors come together to support a national movement to Take Back Your Time, and they propose personal corporate, and legislative solutions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTake Back Your Time\u003c\/i\u003e is the official handbook of the national movement behind Take Back Your Time Day. Ultimately, Take Back Your Time Day organizers plan to institute public policies that put work in its rightful place and allow us all to live richer, fuller, more well-rounded lives.Preface\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part One: Overwork in America\u003cbr\u003e 1 The Even More) Overworked American, Juliet Schor\u003cbr\u003e 2 An Issue for Everybody, Barbara Brandt\u003cbr\u003e 3 The Incredible Shrinking Vacation, Joe Robinson\u003cbr\u003e 4 Forced Overtime in the Land of the Free, Lonnie Golden\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Two: Time is a Family Value\u003cbr\u003e 5 Overscheduled Kids, Underconnected Families, William Doherty and Barbara Carlson\u003cbr\u003e 6 Recapturing Childhood, Betsy Taylor\u003cbr\u003e 7 What about Fluffy and Fido?, Camilla H. Fox\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Three: The Cost to Civil Society, \u003cbr\u003e 8 Wasted Work, Wasted Time, Jonathan Rowe\u003cbr\u003e 9 Time to be a Citizen, Paul Loeb\u003cbr\u003e 10 Time and Crime, Charles Reasons\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Four: Health Hazard\u003cbr\u003e 11 An Hour a Day Could Keep the Doctor Away, Suzanne Schweiker\u003cbr\u003e 12 The (Bigger) Picture of Health, Stephen Bezruchka\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Five: Environmental Consequences\u003cbr\u003e 13 Haste Makes Waste, David Wann\u003cbr\u003e 14 The Speed Trap, Robert Bernstein\u003cbr\u003e 15 On Time, Happiness, and Ecological Footprints, Tim Kasser and Kirk Warren Brown\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Six: Historical and Cultural Perspectives\u003cbr\u003e 16 When We Had the Time, Benjamin Hunnicutt\u003cbr\u003e 17 Can America Learn from Shabbat?, Rabbi Arthur Waskow\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Seven: Taking Back Your Time\u003cbr\u003e 18 Enough--the Time Cost of Stuff, Vicki Robin\u003cbr\u003e 19 The Simple Solution, Cece Andrews\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Eight: Workplace Solutions\u003cbr\u003e 20 Jobs to Share, Carol Ostrom\u003cbr\u003e 21 A New Bottom Line, Irene Myers, Larry Gaffin, and Barbara Schramm\u003cbr\u003e 22 Working Retired, Beverly Goldberg\u003cbr\u003e 23 A Case for Sabbaticals, Bob Sessions and Lori Erickson\u003cbr\u003e 24 America Needs a Break, Karen Nussbaum, Christine Owens, and Carol Eickert\u003cbr\u003e 25 It Would be Good for Business Too, Sharon Lobel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Nine: Rethinking Patterns of Culture\u003cbr\u003e 26 Recipes for Relief, Anna Lappe\u003cbr\u003e 27 Time by Design, Linda Breen Pierce\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Ten: Changing Public Policy\u003cbr\u003e 28 Europe's Work-Time Alternatives, Anders Hayden\u003cbr\u003e 29 A Policy Agenda for Taking Back Time, Jerome Segal\u003cbr\u003e 30 What's an Economy For?, David Korten\u003cbr\u003e Appendices\u003cbr\u003e A. Organizing Take Back Your Time Day in Your Community, Sean Sheehan\u003cbr\u003e B. Teach-Ins and Study Circles, Cecile Andrews\u003cbr\u003e C. How to Pitch (not Place) a Story, Eric Brown\u003cbr\u003e References\u003cbr\u003e About the Authors\u003cbr\u003e Art Credits“Take Back Your Time is a call to action for all of US who believe that the aim of a society is to benefit its people, not to maximize profits.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e--John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “This book is not about time, really; it's about power. It's about realizing our own power to be in control, not slaves to inexorable economic forces. Read this book and take a long deep sigh of relief.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e--Frances Moore Lappe, author of Hope's Edge and Diet for a Small Planet\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Take Back Your Time documents how Americans hurried, harried lifestyles use more natural resources, generate more waste, and leave less time to care for the Earth we all share. The world and its inhabitants would breathe easier indeed if we were to slow our breathless pace.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e–-Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day founder, former U.S. Sen and author of Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “…makes a compelling case for the direct relationship between overwork and a host of critical social problems from physical and emotional stress to overconsumption of resources, environmental degradation and declining levels of civic participation. A tour de force!”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e--Al Gedicks, Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse\u003c\/b\u003eJohn de Graaf is an independent producer of award-winning television documentaries, including Affluenza and Escape from Affluenza, and is the national coordinator of Take Back Your Time Day.Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e JOHN DE GRAAF\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In this book, you’ll find a wide range of perspectives regarding time poverty and begin to see the connections between all of them. Frances Moore Lappé pointed out to me the critically important observation by farmer and environmental writer, Wendell Berry, that in the United States, we too often solve problems issue by issue when it would be more effective to solve them by “pattern.” What is it about the pattern of our lives that exacerbates so many of our social and environmental problems?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This book suggests that a key aspect of our pattern problem comes from an unconscious choice we’ve made as a nation since World War II. Without thinking about it, Americans have taken all their productivity gains in the form of more money—more stuff, if you will—and none of them in the form of more time. Simply put, we as a society have chosen money over time, and this unconscious value pattern has had a powerful and less than beneficial impact on the quality of our collective lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e True, we didn’t all get the money; in fact, the poorest among us actually earn fewer real dollars than they did a generation ago. Our most significant financial gains went to the richest 20 percent of Americans. Nevertheless, as a whole society we now have much more stuff and considerably less time than we used to.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 2\u003cbr\u003e That’s the pattern, and this book shows that the consequences have been and continue to be troubling. The argument here is that if we begin to change the pattern in favor of more time rather than more stuff, a host of other beneficial changes in the quality of our lives will follow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A Collection of Essays\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This book is a collection of essays written by academics, religious and labor leaders, activists, work\/life and family counselors and personal coaches, physicians, and journalists. Most have devoted years of their lives to thinking deeply about the issue of time and Americans’ lack of it. The views of all writers, including myself, are theirs alone, not official positions of Take Back Your Time Day, and not necessarily shared by other writers in this book, although I suspect you’ll see considerable agreement as you read along.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e You will see, too, that styles differ; some chapters focus on factual data, others on anecdotes and personal stories. Some are conversational, others more academic in approach. Each can be read alone and fully understood, but the whole here is greater than the sum of its parts. As you read along, you’ll clearly see how connected these issues are. You’ll find some repetition because these glimpses into various aspects of time famine do overlap, but, I trust, not too much.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A word about statistics: you may discover in reading this book some differences in the working hour statistics presented by different authors. As Juliet Schor explains in Chapter one, measuring work time is an inexact science. For example, measuring working hours per job will result in statistics showing shorter hours of work than will measuring hours per worker, since nearly ten percent of Americans hold more than one job. Estimates using the Current Population Survey of the United States show longer working hours than do Time Diary studies. International Labor Organization (ILO) reports on annual working hours show longer hours than do those of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Nonetheless, the central point the book makes—that American working hours are getting longer—is backed up by all measurements, although only recently in the case of Time Diary studies. Moreover, the ILO and OECD both show the same gap between American and western European working hours, approximately 350 per year. About the fact that Americans work considerably longer hours than the citizens of any other modern industrial nation, there is no longer any debate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Structure of the Book\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The book starts with work-time issues, demonstrating clearly how American working hours have risen since the 1960s. You’ll see how American vacations have become an endangered species—the Spotted Owl of our social lives—and how millions of workers face steadily increasing “mandatory” overtime demands that3 leave them exhausted and leave you less safe and secure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e image\u003cbr\u003e The next series of chapters examines the impact of overwork and over-scheduling on our families, children, communities, citizen participation, and even our treatment of animals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Health and security concerns follow. A criminologist suggests that long working hours make us less safe, while two doctors examine the impact of our rush, rush, work, work, hurry-up existence on our health as individuals and as a nation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e We explore the environmental impact of overwork, and the time cost of our sprawling land use patterns and automobile dependence. We reveal a new study showing that people who work fewer hours are not only happier than are the overworked, but also more benign in their environmental impact.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Two chapters explore history and tradition. For more than half a century, the United States was the leader in the worldwide movement for shorter work time. Moreover, our great religious and spiritual teachings all emphasize the need for rest from work, for time to be instead of to have.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But this is also a book about solutions, and they start with personal choices and responsibility. We see how our spending patterns and unconscious acceptance of the plethora of consumer messages we get each day actually cost us time. Thousands of Americans are finding out how to simplify their lives and sharing their ideas with others.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Others are finding ways to share jobs and win more flexible work schedules through negotiation with their employers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e We present the case for phased retirement options and for sabbaticals—for ordinary workers, not just academics. We find out what labor unions are doing to4 challenge mandatory overtime and win more family time for their members and other workers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Some critics suggest that shorter working hours would be bad for the economy, bad for business. But this book counters that assumption.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e We also look at possibilities for cultural change, seeing how the “slow food” and “slow cities” movements are changing everyday life in ways that give us time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But Public Policy has a place here as well; many Americans will not win more time through personal action or even workplace bargaining alone. We examine the enlightened laws that have given Europeans the choice of far more balanced lifestyles than their American counterparts enjoy—shorter working hours, longer vacations, generous family leave policies, and other innovative approaches that assure benefits for part-time workers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Can we develop American public policies that put work in its rightful place, as part of life, not the be-all and end-all of life? We offer some bold ideas to do just that. Finally, we ask the big question: some economists say shorter work hours and more balanced lives are bad for “the economy,” but what’s an economy for anyway if not for happier, balanced lives?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A Practical Appendix\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The appendices comprise a practical organizer’s toolkit, giving you the ideas you’ll need to organize Take Back Your Time Day activities in your community or college (you’ll find more of them at our Web site: www.timeday.org.) You can use this handbook in classes or discussion groups. You’ll find suggested discussion questions on our Web site, as well.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e If you are like most readers, you will find many things to agree with here, and other points that call forth exclamations of “no way!” But the point of this book, and of Take Back Your Time Day, is not to get us all to agree on everything, but to begin the conversation about an issue that deeply affects the great majority of us in this country, yet one which our leaders seem not to think and speak about at all. We cannot solve the time crunch until we talk seriously about it as Americans and make it part of our social, workplace, and political agenda. Let the discussion start with this book.","brand":"Berrett-Koehler Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302573002981,"sku":"NP9781576752456","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781576752456.jpg?v=1767737725","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/take-back-your-time-isbn-9781576752456","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}