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Where did the American work ethic come from?
Until the Protestant Reformation, work was considered a four-letter word, then everything changed. Historian Roger Hill discusses how work became a source of American pride.
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OK, so we work hard, but where did that work ethic come from? Did Thomas Jefferson refuse to take lunch breaks? Was Julius Caesar the last guy to leave the Senate on a Friday night? For a history lesson we talked with Roger Hill, a professor at the University of Georgia, Athens' school of Workforce Education, Leadership, and Social Foundations.
If Professor Hill were to rank America's current work ethic based on a 1-10 scale (with 10 representing moments in our history where we work hardest and 1 where we work laziest), he says he'd give Americans an 8 or a 9 overall.
"The difference is the nature of the work," said Hill. "Usually when we think about work in the Western part of the world, which includes the United States, we go back actually to the time of the Hebrews and at that period of time work was primarily regarded as a curse. The Greeks also had poor attitudes about work. Work was not something someone would espouse to do."
Negative attitudes about work continued into the medieval period, says Hill. But in the 1500s a significant shift occurred in attitude as a result of the Protestant Reformation.
For more on the history of America's work ethic -- and to hear Hill's thoughts on whether a society's work ethic dictates its success and what we can do to make sure we work the perfect amount today -- click the play button on the audio player above.
I wish, too, that some discussion could have covered the aspect of slavery. Thomas Jefferson may have refused a lunch break, but how many slaves did he own? If the Euro-Americans were such hard workers why did they have to kidnap, enslave, mutilate, rape, etc. so many Africans to do all the work that the Africans did? I do realize it takes a strong work ethic to kidnap and enslave others, but I don't think this is the work ethic being referred to as historically both Protestants and Catholics seemed equal to that particular task. Thanks for initiating this discussion!
I wish Professor Hill had distinguished between "work" and "labor," and between elites, who valued leisure, and the masses who tilled, built, and labored to feed themselves and their families and to make possible the leisured life of the elites.
Also, to claim that the ancient "Greeks" had a poor attitude towards work is a blanket statement, which may lead to a naive understanding that complex problems can be solved by a people who just need to work harder. I am thinking of today's debate over the debt crises in Greece, Italy, and Spain. It is a statement that potentially feeds into biases and nasty stereotypes of all sorts (lazy Americans, welfare mothers, etc.)
In addition, Hill's claim linking the origins of the American work ethic to the sixteenth-century Reformation should not go unchallenged. It is based on Weber's thesis, about a century old, which linked the emergence of capitalism to the sixteenth-century Reformation and the protestant work ethic. Weber's evidence was flawed and the thesis continues to be highly contested, witness the vast amount of literature available on the topic. By using Weber to discuss today's American work ethic, we reflect a western point of view that ignores the accomplishments of others.
