One Day I'll Work for Myself

An acclaimed historian reveals how our culture became obsessed with working for ourselves and how it distracts us from real economic progress

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From side-hustlers to start-ups, Americans have a special affinity for people who make it on their own. But the dream has a dark side. Historian Benjamin C. Waterhouse looks back at how and why Americans have embraced self-employment and discovers that the modern cult of the hustle is a direct consequence of economic failures—bad jobs, stagnant wages, inequality—that have engulfed the country since the 1970s. In the last decades of the twentieth century, political activists, corporate PR departments and business professors all hailed the revolutionary potential of business ownership. A new generation—including suburban moms who pioneered home-based businesses, franchisors and multilevel marketers—took the plunge, laying the groundwork for today’s gig economy. One Day I’ll Work for Myself offers a deeper, provocative cultural history of the US economy from the perspective of the workers within it—and asks urgent questions about why we’re clinging to old strategies for progress.