Through historical research and analysis of management texts, business school curricula, and other data, two prominent sociologists and theoreticians of contemporary capitalist modes of production analyze how changes in our contemporary business culture have created a new spirit of capitalism. They chart how the advent of post-Fordist work from the 1970s on led to an office culture that prized autonomous work-this change, the authors argue, imposed an even more exploitative and rigid model of work by co-opting notions of freedom, flexibility, and initiative in the service of higher productivity. A key reference in analyzing post-Fordist labor, precarity, the rise of freelance work, etc.