This masterwork of critical analysis from a pioneer of the post Marxist Left unravels the ascendancy and the limits of economic rationality pushed to the brink of crisis. Beginning with the invention of work and its separation from life, Gorz shows how the development of productive forces has exhausted the logic of `the more the better', transforming workers into human resources on the one hand; volunteers, prostitutes, servants, and the unemployed on the other. Marxism's old utopia of work, now partially absorbed by capitalism, no longer presents a viable alternative to these conditions. Instead, Gorz issues a series of highly influential proposals set on drastically reducing and reapportioning work and advancing the emancipatory promise of increased free time.<BR><BR>`Gorz's greatest work, and a crucial book for our time.'---Le Monde<BR><BR>`Gorz's intelligence strikes you at the very first glance: it is one of the nimblest, acutest intelligences I know.'---Jean-Paul Sartre