The Wheelwright's Shop

Rating:
Summary: A personal search for meaning in a way of life that has past
Review: I found this book to be a wonderful and informative treatise, both as a student and as an amateur woodworker. Sturt's narrative is a measured blend of documentary and moral argument, which is of equal or greater importance now, as when it was first published in 1923. In it, he offers a first-hand account of the historic, geographic, and human context concerning the artisan-producer within the tradition of medieval wood and iron work. I found three main themes within Sturt's work that were particularly pleasing to myself, and which I found relevant to my search for meaning. Firstly, he emphasizes the relationships that arose from the close interactions of a local market, of a close-knit group of workers, and of an artist and his/her medium. Secondly, he rightfully condemns the waste and destruction associated with the Industrial Revolution, while omitting a lament over the changes in the means of production. And lastly, he offers an example of the effectiveness, connectivity, and ingenuity that arises from the intimate interrelationships between workers and their tasks through their tools, between producers and consumers through their products, and between people and their community through a sense of place and a sense of purpose.

Rating:
Summary: The Old Way is the Good Way
Review: If you wanted to sit down with a wheelwright from a couple hundred years ago and keep your mouth shut and listen to every bit of wisdom he had to impart ... that's what this book is about. Read (listen) to non-rocket science about what makes a wheel work and how to either make or not make dumb mistakes.
Valuable information about general wood working that applies not only to wheels.
Or if you're a history buff, how wooden wheels once fit into everyday life.