Work has been central to human development throughout history from the first tools fashioned by our ancestors, through the creation of settled societies in the agrarian revolution 10,000 years ago, to the beginning of the factory system in the late 18th century.

Yet attitudes to work have fluctuated, ranging from contempt for manual labour in ancient Greek and Roman societies to the veneration of work within the Protestant ethic that took root across northern Europe from the time of the Reformation.