Drawing on a range of contemporary and historical material, this introductory textbook examines the nature of work in its more traditional guises as paid employment as well as the wider context of work as "unpaid labour" in the home. The emphasis is on links between the social processes and institutions of employment and their domestic and social contexts. Thus rather than focusing wholly on male factory workers, the author also considers the significance of gender and race as well as sectional divisions within the class structures.