The book is an attempt to understand the origins of modern world alienation. She does so partly by comparing modern life/society to classical greece's and partly through historical analysis of philosophical thoughts and scientific progress.
It's an interesting book; while I'm not fully on board with some of the arguments, it gave me some vocabulary to re-frame my thinking. I also don't really read non-fiction, much less philosophy so unsure if this is the norm but the multiple qualifiers in every sentence drove me a bit nuts.
The first part of the book romanticizes classical greece a bit too much I think. The next three parts distinguishes between different human activities - namely labor, work and action. The final part is about modern age.