Author: Studs Terkel
The next author from my I Definitely Want to Read More list is Studs Terkel. If Tom Robbins was because of Elise, Studs is because of my father, who had many of his books in the house when I was growing up.
Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel is certainly the most famous collector of oral biographies in America, and quite possibly the best. Every book of his that I've read has fallen into that format, even those that were more memoirs. While you may not get the complete picture of an issue with an oral history, you do learn an awful lot about what the people on the ground saw happening, which is very often the kind of detail omitted from the grander "sweep of history" books. In that sense Terkel predated Howard Zinn. Terkel also shows a talent for stringing the different sections together in ways that support or contradict the official line on an incident. Other than John Peel, I can't think of anyone who had a career that truly makes me envious.
In any event, the first book by Terkel that I recall having read was probably his most famous, The Good War, which won the Pulitzer. My father had it in paperback back when it was still new, and I probably read it in the late 1980s. From there I worked through several of the other books that my father had, including Hard Times and Working and Race.
Start Here
- I read Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression in junior high or high school. I think it's probably his best book
- Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do is another fine entry into the everyday life of people in the 1970s. It even got turned into a Broadway musical, which still blows my mind.
If You Like Those
- If those two worked for you, you'll certainly enjoy "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II, which won the Pulitzer. It also inspired World War Z, which Max Brooks freely acknowledges, but even if he didn't it's shocking how derivative it really is.
For Completists
These books are all good, but tend to be more focused thematically. If you are interested in the theme, check them out.
- Terkel was a radio actor and spent much of his childhood attending theater and vaudeville. He also wrote some plays. His long-time radio show gave him many opportunities to interview people in the business, the best of which are collected in The Spectator: Talk About Movies and Plays With Those Who Made Them. One interesting note is that many of the people he interviews were quite famous, and are now forgotten, or only remembered for one role. Immortality is not achievable. (read 2019)
- Division Street: America - Terkel talks to a cross-section of Chicago. His interviews cross race, class, gender and occupation to give a view of the city. (read pre-list).
- American Dreams: Lost and Found - Terkel talks with people about the American dream. A much less famous Arnold Schwarzenegger turns up. Then he followed it up with The Great Divide: Second Thoughts on the American Dream a few years later to see how the view had changed. (both read pre-list).
- Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession came out in 1992 and looks back at the Civil Rights Era as well as the present day. Most of it is still sadly relevant.
- Talking to Myself: A Memoir of My Times is a memoir primarily of his childhood as a Depression era kid in Chicago and young adulthood as a radio actor. There are plenty of side conversations with Terkel's friends. (read 2014)
- P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening came out shortly after Terkel's death and collects a number of interviews from his radio show that weren't in his other, more thematic volumes. (read 2017)
What I Haven't Read Yet
My highest priority is
And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey, which appears the musical equivalent of The Spectator. I bought a copy as a gift for my father but haven't actually read it myself.
Beyond that, I have not read these and they are not in any particular priority order.
- Giants of Jazz - originally came out in 1957
- Chicago - a history of Chicago.
- Coming of Age: The Story of Our Century by Those Who've Lived It
- Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith
- Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times
- Touch and Go: A Memoir
Probably Won't
So far I haven't had any inkling that there's stuff I wouldn't want to read, but I do know that in many cases particularly good interviews are reused in books that touch on the same areas. I can easily imagine there being too much overlap in one collection for me to bother with it. For example, My American Century is a collection of his best works, so there may not be much in there I haven't read. On the other hand, there may be. Terkel kept doing interviews pretty much up to the day he died. It wouldn't shock me if more collections came out as his archive is evaluated.
Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel is certainly the most famous collector of oral biographies in America, and quite possibly the best. Every book of his that I've read has fallen into that format, even those that were more memoirs. While you may not get the complete picture of an issue with an oral history, you do learn an awful lot about what the people on the ground saw happening, which is very often the kind of detail omitted from the grander "sweep of history" books. In that sense Terkel predated Howard Zinn. Terkel also shows a talent for stringing the different sections together in ways that support or contradict the official line on an incident. Other than John Peel, I can't think of anyone who had a career that truly makes me envious.
In any event, the first book by Terkel that I recall having read was probably his most famous, The Good War, which won the Pulitzer. My father had it in paperback back when it was still new, and I probably read it in the late 1980s. From there I worked through several of the other books that my father had, including Hard Times and Working and Race.
Start Here
- I read Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression in junior high or high school. I think it's probably his best book
- Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do is another fine entry into the everyday life of people in the 1970s. It even got turned into a Broadway musical, which still blows my mind.
If You Like Those
- If those two worked for you, you'll certainly enjoy "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II, which won the Pulitzer. It also inspired World War Z, which Max Brooks freely acknowledges, but even if he didn't it's shocking how derivative it really is.
For Completists
These books are all good, but tend to be more focused thematically. If you are interested in the theme, check them out.
- Terkel was a radio actor and spent much of his childhood attending theater and vaudeville. He also wrote some plays. His long-time radio show gave him many opportunities to interview people in the business, the best of which are collected in The Spectator: Talk About Movies and Plays With Those Who Made Them. One interesting note is that many of the people he interviews were quite famous, and are now forgotten, or only remembered for one role. Immortality is not achievable. (read 2019)
- Division Street: America - Terkel talks to a cross-section of Chicago. His interviews cross race, class, gender and occupation to give a view of the city. (read pre-list).
- American Dreams: Lost and Found - Terkel talks with people about the American dream. A much less famous Arnold Schwarzenegger turns up. Then he followed it up with The Great Divide: Second Thoughts on the American Dream a few years later to see how the view had changed. (both read pre-list).
- Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession came out in 1992 and looks back at the Civil Rights Era as well as the present day. Most of it is still sadly relevant.
- Talking to Myself: A Memoir of My Times is a memoir primarily of his childhood as a Depression era kid in Chicago and young adulthood as a radio actor. There are plenty of side conversations with Terkel's friends. (read 2014)
- P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening came out shortly after Terkel's death and collects a number of interviews from his radio show that weren't in his other, more thematic volumes. (read 2017)
What I Haven't Read Yet
My highest priority is
And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey, which appears the musical equivalent of The Spectator. I bought a copy as a gift for my father but haven't actually read it myself.
Beyond that, I have not read these and they are not in any particular priority order.
- Giants of Jazz - originally came out in 1957
- Chicago - a history of Chicago.
- Coming of Age: The Story of Our Century by Those Who've Lived It
- Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith
- Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times
- Touch and Go: A Memoir
Probably Won't
So far I haven't had any inkling that there's stuff I wouldn't want to read, but I do know that in many cases particularly good interviews are reused in books that touch on the same areas. I can easily imagine there being too much overlap in one collection for me to bother with it. For example, My American Century is a collection of his best works, so there may not be much in there I haven't read. On the other hand, there may be. Terkel kept doing interviews pretty much up to the day he died. It wouldn't shock me if more collections came out as his archive is evaluated.