This volume contains a representative collection of the papers commissioned for Work in America, the controversial report of a special task force to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. These sixteen papers, which provided the background for much of the report, deal with the problems of work and its effects on our lives. Coming at a time when many of the traditional beliefs about the value and purpose of work are being challenged, this collection makes a particularly valuable contribution to the national debates on job enrichment, career education, and welfare.
The authors of these papers treat in depth many of the issues discussed in Work in America; the book's six parts correspond to the chapters of Work in America. In the first part, Ivar Berg and George Strauss present papers on job dissatisfaction and the changing work ethic. Next, Michael J. Piore, Isabel V. Sawhill, and Emanuel Kay examine the problems of specific groups of American workers. Work and Health, both physical and mental, are discussed in papers by Bruce L. Margolis and William H. Kroes, James S. House, and Stanislav V. Kasl.
The need for redesigning jobs is examined by Robert L. Kahn, Richard E. Walton, and Louis E. David and Eric L. Trist. From the redesign of jobs, the book moves to a reexamination of the education that in some degree prepares us for work—David C. MacMichael and Beatrice G. Reubens write about career education and vocational education. The final chapters, on federal work strategies, are by Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., Lee Rainwater, and Thomas C. Thomas.
