What does a worker do who touches the object he is shaping or the machine he is operating? Why and how did the “labor movement”, which is also synonymous with “work creation in action”, gradually become an exclusively militant notion? Because the workforce, the author tells us, is first and foremost a hand at work: from the depths of prehistory to the present day, the working gesture creates by shaping and aestheticizing tools and techniques, by cultivating its traditions, its festivals, its artistic expressions. Beyond their technical and economic function, the movements of the voiceless carry a vision of the world. The author describes the microcosm of gesture and worker deviations (from tricks of the trade to sabotage) with an erudite and literary look. He shows by means of a precise daydream how the fragmentation of tasks in the arts and crafts, folklore or popular traditions ended up removing the worker's gestures of their social and aesthetic value. A work in sparkling style, enhanced by thirty period illustrations.