The threat that automation is in the process of destroying large numbers of jobs has been much discussed recently. Sober think tanks such as the Brookings Institution and the McKinsey Global Institute have forecast that automation will eliminate tens of millions of US jobs in the next few decades. The Atlantic has dedicated eight thousand words to a feature on “A World Without Work.”

In his new book, Labor’s End: How the Promise of Automation Degraded Work, labor historian Jason Resnikoff reminds us that we have been here before. From the 1940s to the 1970s, much of the US intelligentsia was transfixed by the notion that technology would in short order largely eliminate manual work. Some saw this as a welcome development that would eradicate drudgery and usher in a post-scarcity age of plenty, others as a looming threat requiring bold action to safeguard the well-being of masses of workers. But all, with few exceptions, saw this change as inevitable.

Five-plus decades later, our country still has an abundance of drudgery, along with scarcity for many, plenty for some, and vast excess for a few. And we still have a great deal of manual labor, though less of it involves metal-banging and more involves serving customers or providing care.