Tom Hodgkinson

All work and no play is dulling our senses

Ancient Greek philosophers reckoned that life was all about free time, but 16th-century puritanism dealt a blow to the old festive culture from which we’ve never fully recovered

Medieval villagers performing a nose dance. [Getty Images]

  • Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal

    Gary S. Cross

    New York University Press, pp. 340, £29

Already a subscriber? Log in

This article is for subscribers only

Subscribe today and get a £30 Amazon gift card if you correctly predict the next US president.

Offer ends in ${days} days ${hours} hrs ${minutes} mins ${seconds} secs
  • The weekly edition delivered, via the Spectator app
  • Unlimited access to spectator.co.uk
  • Spectator newsletters and exclusive events
  • The chance to win a case of Pol Roger Champagne

Read next

Trending

Sam Leith

Do we care that the King is rich?

Sam Leith
For the first time, the true extent of the property held by the King and the Prince of Wales’s private estates, the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall has been revealed, according to a splashy Sunday Times investigation. There are 5,410 separate properties up and down the country paying millions of pounds annually in rents and

Because you read about aristotle

Also by Tom Hodgkinson

Latest

Comments

Join the debate today

Guess the new US president when you subscribe, and get a £30 Amazon gift card.

Already a subscriber? Log in