"This important book by a major historian is the first to study how the problem of people out of work has been understood and dealt with in the Western world. Garraty discusses the ambivalent attitudes that people have always had toward work and how attitudes and perceptions have changed from ancient times to the present. He deals with what economists and philosophers have written about the problem over the centuries, with what public officials, heads of state, and politicians have said and done about it, with how effective the various "cures" have been, and with the situation today"--Book jacket.