What makes the dream of self-employment so alluring, so pervasive in today's world? Benjamin C. Waterhouse offers a provocative argument: the modern cult of the hustle is a direct consequence of economic failures—bad jobs, stagnant wages, and inequality—since the 1970s. With original research, Waterhouse traces a new narrative history of business in America, populated with vivid characters—from the activists, academics, and work-from-home gurus who hailed business ownership as our economic salvation to the upstarts who took the plunge. Some flourish; some squeak by. Some fail.

As Waterhouse shows, the go-it-alone movement that began in the 1970s laid the political and cultural groundwork for today's gig economy and its ethos: everyone should be their own boss. While some people find success in that world, countless others are left bouncing from gig to gig-exploited, underpaid, or conned by get-rich-quick scams. And our politics doesn't know how to respond.

Accessible, fast-paced, and eye-opening, One Day I'll Work for Myself offers a fresh, insightful cultural history of the US economy from the perspective of the people within it, asking urgent questions about why we're clinging to old strategies for progress—and at what cost.