Why Work explores the contemporary cultural construction of work, beginning with the expression, A Real Job. This volume examines work in the writings of Aristotle, Plato, Confucius, St. Benedict, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Frederick Winslow Taylor, and Mary Parker Follett to answer the question, Can the concept of work be divorced from the thinker's past? A final chapter re-examines the core issue in light of the vary concept of work and ask one more time why work? This work is a result of an Honors seminar at Purdue University.