Cultural, societal, and technological movements in America have defined leisure as we know it today. All facets of life, including religion, education, and government, have helped shape modern leisure. Several events in particular played a major role: the philosophical views of ancient Greece, changes in religious beliefs during the Protestant Reformation, the major technological advances of the Industrial Revolution, and the rapid growth of society in the early 1990s. 1900. Through these events, leisure played radically different roles, but its importance was evident and we can still feel its influences today. To better understand contemporary leisure, it is helpful to take a look at their origins during the Classical period. During this time, Aristotle's teachings and philosophies played an important role not only in defining leisure, but also in exploring its relationships within society. To better understand leisure, we should take a closer look at Aristotle's definition of the word. De Grazia (1962) writes that Aristotle defined leisure as “freedom from the necessity of work” (p. 11). Aristotle believed that all work and occupation was the antithesis of leisure. The Greek translation of the word leisure is “schole”. It is interesting to note that the Greek translation for work or occupation is “ascolia.” Thus, in the Greek language, the meaning of work was essentially not leisure. This highlights that the idea of ​​leisure was central to Greek thought and practice and we will later explore how this concept begins to be lost as work and society evolve. De Grazia (1962) broadens Aristotle's definition of leisure to include any “activity carried out for one's own pleasure.” for its own good or as its own end” (p. 13). According to Aristotle, leisure was not... middle of paper ... society now classifies leisure as simply "free time". Time away from work or school, however one enjoys it, is today defined more broadly as leisure. Works Cited • “Child Labor in United States History,” Child Labor Public Educstion Project. http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/us_history.html• Cross, G (1990). A Social History of Leisure Since 1600. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc.• De Grazia, S. (1962). Of time, work and leisure (pp. 9-25). Garden City, New York: Anchor Books. • “Max Weber.” Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. May 15. 2014. Internet. May 19. 2014.• Nd “The long history of Olympic protests. »• Rojek, C. (2000). Leisure and the rich today: Veblen's thesis after a century. Leisure Studies, 19(1), 1–15.• Rosenberg, Jennifer. “Tin Lizzie’s nickname.” 1900s, August 15 2007.