O f Time Work and Leisure T W E N T I E T H C E N T U R Y F U N D The Fund is a nonprofit, philanthropic foundation conducting research and public education on economic and social problems. It was founded in 1919 and endowed by Edward A. Filene. The Fund's income, administered as a public trust by a Board of Trustees, is devoted to its own research and educational activities. The Trustees choose subjects for research studies and vote the appropriation to cover the expenses of each project. The Trustees, however, assume no responsibility for the facts and opinions contained in research reports. BOARD OF TRU STEES Morris B. Abram Benjamin V. Cohen James P. Mitchell Adolf A. Berle J. Frederic Dewhurst Robert Oppenheimer Chairman James H. Rowe, Jr. J. Kenneth Galbraith Francis Biddle Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. August Heckscher Vice Chairman H. Chr. Sonne David E. Lilienthal Arthur F. Burns T reasurer Erwin D. Canham Robert S. Lynd Herman W. Steinkraus Evans Clark James G. McDonald Charles P. Taft Director: August Heckscher THE LEISURE STUDY RESEARCH STAFF Research Directors Sebastian de Grazia, August Heckscher Associate Research Director Thomas C. Fichandler OF TIME WORK AND LEISURE Sebastian de Grazia The Twentieth Century Fund - New York 1962 COPYRIGHT © 1962 BY THE TWENTIETH CENTURY FUND, IN Manufactured in the United States of America By Connecticut Printers, Incorporated, Hartford, Connecticut LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER*. 62-13331 FOREWORD A brief foreword by the Director has been usual in Twentieth Century Fund books. In this case I write with some diffidence, having been closely involved in the work as co-director of re­ search. Not only do I present it to the public on behalf of the staff of the Fund and its Trustees; I am tempted to add some comments as one who struggled with the project while it evolved and has known from the inside the difficulties of formulation and analysis. The Fund began with the idea of studying, quite simply, lei­ sure in the United States. From the beginning, however, it be­ came clear that nothing in this field was as simple as it appeared. The seminal chapter on Recreation in the Fund's America's Needs and Resources: A New Survey (1955) had gathered avail­ able data on patterns of consumption as related to leisure; these tables had been supplemented by the work of others and the most basic of them were to be carried forward by the government in the Statistical Abstract of the United States for 1961. What was required in a new Fund study, it seemed, was less an ex­ tended analysis of the way people spent their free time, or of the market which their changing habits provided, than some fresh thought on the nature of leisure in an industrial society. It became apparent that leisure could not be treated apart from work and that both had to be viewed against the changing concepts of time in our civilization. Accordingly, the work de­ veloped its present scope — in effect tending to become a critique of advanced industrialism as it exists in the United States today. That time away from the job is not necessarily “free” time; that it is spent in ways which other societies would have scarcely con­ nected with leisure; that the commitments and obligations of Foreword normal existence have tended to increase while the formal work­ ing week was being reduced — these are some of the conclu­ sions reached. Sebastian de Grazia, author of The Political Community and now Professor of Political Science at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University, undertook increasingly the main burden of the work. He has been generous in recording the help of those who worked with him in a research team; but the present volume is his, as its style is unmistakably the voice of one man. That style, at times playful, colloquial, enigmatic, is ex­ pressive throughout of a wide-ranging scholarship. It is a pleas­ ure to acknowledge the gratification of the Twentieth Century Fund in presenting this unique volume; it is a pleasure, also, on behalf of the staff and of myself, to acknowledge the rewards of working over these years in close association with the author. AUGUST HECKSCHER, Director The Twentieth Century Fund 41 East 70th Street, New York March 1962 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS That our names are listed together as directors of research in­ dicates something of the part August Heckscher played in the formulation and planning of this study. From the start, his inter­ est sustained the work. His administration relieved it of the petty annoyances that usually lay siege to a study; at the same time his ideas enlarged its vision. Those writings of his cited in the notes reflect only a sample of these ideas. And the many con­ versations we had helped provide the frequent judgments needed to set the book’s course and speed it on its way. In many ways he should be considered my co-author. Thomas C. Fichandler collaborated in the economic parts of the study, but his role was greater than that of economist and statistician. His influence extended throughout the manuscript, his keen eye and thoughtful regard ranging over all pages. To Jay Gordon Hall, Livio Stecchini, Renzo Sereno, and my brother Alfred de Grazia I acknowledge a special debt, too, for their judicious reading, helpful criticism, and refreshing outlook. My gratitude to Roswell G. Ham, Jr., as editor is also great. Not only did his many suggestions and questions help improve the manu­ script, but his unflagging enthusiasm lightened the burdens of revision. My appreciation goes finally to the Trustees of the Twentieth Century Fund for their generous support, and to the Fund’s staff, on whose help I counted many times and who never failed to respond with interest and dispatch. SEBASTIAN DE GRAZIA CONTENTS Introduction Leisure's Century 3 I The Background of Leisure 11 II Toward the Work Society 35 III Time Given, Time Taken Away 63 IV Free Time and Its Uses 91 V In Pursuit of Time 139 VI Shapers of Choice 169 VII The Fate of an Ideal 225 VIII Time Free of Machines 295 IX Transforming Free Time 329 X Leisure's Future 381 Appendices 4.4.1 Notes 477 Index 535