Ben Hunnicutt: Leisure, the (Forgotten) Basis of American Progress

My guest today is the historian and professor of leisure studies at the University of Iowa, Ben Hunnicutt.

His scholarship focuses on a simple, perplexing question: why, after 100 years of shortening working weeks, did America abandon the pursuit of leisure?

I feverishly read two of his books - Work Without End, and Free Time: The Forgotten American Dream - that chronicle the history of the relationship between America’s political economy and the pursuit of leisure time for all.

He brings the precision of a historian together with the sensibility of a poet (nowhere more visible than his deep study of Walt Whitman) to make sense of a fascinating time period during which America changed its mind.

In our conversation, we cover:

• The history of the ideas of shorter working weeks and leisure time from 1830 until today.

• The difference between “economic progress” and “higher progress”.

• How children who spend more time at play grow into adults better suited to handle leisure time

• The psychologies of labor and leisure

• Strategies to reintroduce leisure into the U.S. political economy.

Enjoy!