In The Corrosion of Character, Richard Sennett proposes that the emergence of "flexible capitalism" is having increasingly negative effects on the ability for people to find cohesion and narrative in their lives. The change from a pyramid bureaucracy to a web-like network removes the scaffolding that provided structure to earlier workers lives. With more frequent job relocation, travel and even less predictability in the work itself, people are having difficulty feeling that what they do each day is an accumulative experience, one that will lead them to new challenges and new levels of accomplishment, in a predictable order that would allow them to have closure and meaning in their lives. This lack of meaning creates characteristics and reactions that challenge our notions of happiness. In this review I will look at the various resources and ideas that Sennett calls upon to support his position and how well he administers them, as well as point out both positive and negative characteristics of his argument.
             Sennett's use of individual examples serves well to bring us closer to the forces that effect people's lives. By using detailed qualitative life histories we are able to grossly but not unproductively reconstruct major elements in these lives to create a more holistic picture. With this broader picture we can look for connections between the character of people and the way this interacts with work and family life, and subsequently how this interaction creates or denies happiness.
             To give us a starting point, the first example Sennett gives us is Enrico, who is an example of the character present prior to a change in bureaucratic structure. Enrico has spent his life attempting to fulfill an incarnation of the American Dream that is not for himself. He saves money for his children's education in the hopes that they can get closer to what America has promised for those that work hard. Sennet...