The Studs Terkel Reader: My American Century

Bottom Line First: I count myself a Studs Terkel fan. That said I have a reservation or two about The Studs Terkel American Reader: My American Century. (Paper Back Edition). Terkel is at his best letting American speak for themselves. His skill is at helping them to open up and asking a minimal number of questions. What is best about this collection is variety of American that tell their story. The total read feels a bit loaded as if Studs had chosen from a more balanced group to insure that one of his last collections would reflect his personal concerns.If you know anything about Chicago born writer and Radio personality Studs Terkel he was a liberal. Old school union type liberal. He was humanist and more than anything interested in people. Chicago people in particular, Americans in general and pretty much anyone who would let him record and publish. Yes he edits, but history is edited. What comes through are the personal stories, beliefs and living priorities of the people in his books. Reprinted in My American Century are his picks from seven previous collections. The major chapters are from each collection, but not bound together in chronological order. He has sections from people who spoke with him about the time of the depression and ends with people who, like himself lived through the intervening years.Almost no one is a household name, but the breath of people represented is itself breathtaking. From Gangster Doc Graham.; one of the funniest, until you realize he is talking about murdering real people to Wartime Marine E. B. Sledge ( With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa ). Cook, waitresses, Cops and Firemen are all here. One of the top .1 per centers and labor strikers and strike breakers. America is here represented.If there is one theme; it is the unevenness and disparity in in access to the American Dream. Some people do make it. None make it by themselves, even if they do not dwell on who and how they were helped. Others make it clear that there is more at play than the vageries of random chance. Hard work is rarely enough for the select few and is never enough for the rest.Over and over again, in the Dream (1980 collection), Division Street (1967) The Divide (1988) and indirectly in almost every other section the major theme is the inequality in the access to and achievement of any abiding sense of economic security. Great wealth is not what most of these people want. They want to be secure in their homes and in their jobs. None ask for a life of ease, most want some minimal level or respect and certainty.If Terkel’s goal was to have his reader be inspired by what American can do, for themselves and each other. I did not get it. Too many of these people seemed to be alone in their hopes. Many are aware that help arrived in the depression but maybe not so much since then. Terkel reminds us that help has kept more people alive than it has taught to ride free. Beyond that he does not portray an America nearer an age of a secure working class.

Studs Terkel spent his life collecting stories: not the grand picturesque stories, but the dirty, gritty, everyday stories that perhaps matter the most. Traveling throughout America he listened to everyone and anyone he could, from a young Bob Dylan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to poor industry workers and begging women on the street. He had a gift of being there for people who had something to say, and collected every single personal story as if it was more meaningful than a bucket of gold in the midst of the Great Depression.This book is a collection of his stories, an oral history of XX century America, seen not through the eyes o historians, but by those who lived in the mansions, houses, and gutters of the time.A touching account and echoing voice of past time, recounted in a way that is both humanely sensitive, and immensely observant of America's diversity, conflict, inequality, struggle, and success. But do not expect a historical narrative! You will find no single argument, no single voice, only a kaleidoscope of personalities that make up this nation.Suitable for anyone interested in America, modernity, and it's history, or simply for those who share Studs' love for people and observation. Also, due to the fact that many of these stories were originally radio interviews, it's a great starting point to thinking about spoken language, oral history, and voicing the past.

A must read for all Studs fans. An excellent anthology of his work and an interesting insight into American society.

This e-version of Studs Terkel's Reader has so many typo's in it that it is almost indecipherable in parts. Whoever transcribed it from the print edition should be fired. Great material, terrible transcription.

once again studs at his best sort of a mini history of his life how much i miss him and how much we need him now the struggle never ends

The copy I received (NEW) was missing pages 121-184. I understand the occasional minor misprints that occur, but that is an unacceptable level of craftsmanship on the part of the publisher.Content-wise, Studs Terkel is a fantastic oral historian, and highly recommend reviewing his works -- however, not through this publication.

Always interesting, always thoughtful, not really oral history, it's too edited. So what?

Thanks

I picked up a copy of Hard Times in a second-hand shop in the States last year, and loved it. I wanted to hear more from the author. The problem with this book is that I find the scale of it intimidating and I've barely started it. I wonder if I have taken on more than I can handle.

i love stud terkels. reading his books is like being with a good friend..even for me isnt even an american. just makes me feel good and like humanity again;)