Cultural, social, and technological movements in America have defined leisure as we know it today. All aspects of life, including religion, education, and government, have played a role in shaping modern leisure. Several events in particular played an important 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 overall rapid growth of society during the early 1900s. Through these events, leisure played drastically different roles, but its significance was evident and we can still feel its influences today. To better understand contemporary leisure, it is useful to take a look at its origins during the classical period. During this period, Aristotle's teachings and philosophies were significant not only in defining leisure but also in exploring its relationship within society. To better understand free time we should look more closely at Aristotle's definition of the word. De Grazia (1962) writes that Aristotle defined free time as “freedom from the necessity of work” (p.11). Aristotle believed that all work and occupation were the antithesis of leisure. The Greek translation of free time is 'schole'. Interestingly, the Greek translation for work or occupation is “ascholia.” Thus, in the Greek language, the meaning of work was essentially non-leisure. This highlights that at the heart of Greek thought and practice was the idea of ​​leisure and we will later explore how this concept begins to be lost as work and society changes. De Grazia (1962) expands Aristotle's definition of leisure to include any "activity done for one's purpose." an end in and of itself” (p. 13). According to Aristotle, leisure was not… the focus of the paper… society now classifies leisure simply as “free time”. Time away from work or school, regardless of how it is enjoyed, is now more broadly defined as free time. Works Cited • “Child Labor in US 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. Web. 19 May. 2014.• Nd “The Long History of Olympic Protests.”• Rojek, C. (2000). Free time and the rich today: Veblen's thesis after a century. Leisure Studies, 19(1), 1–15.• Rosenberg, Jennifer. "The nickname Tin Lizzie." History1900, 15 Aug 2007.