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Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times

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Studs Terkel. I apologize, I cannot continue without prefacing my review without a word or two about this great man, and I am not normally effusive in my praise.

If you wanted someone to try and model your life on, you could do far worse than to choose Studs Terkel. Anyone today could live to be 200 and not see and experience half of what this man has. He was born May 14, 1912, and at the age of 91, he is still going strong. Talk about endurance, about transcending time. My hats off to Terkel.

Anyway, to the review, as you might expect if you've read anything else by Terkel, he continues his intriguing and beguiling brand of oral history, transmitted to us through the written word. His many works have touched on many periods, and many themes, but in this book, Terkel examines hope.

More importantly, Terkel in this book views hope as marked by resistance, activism, working to change the world or make it a better place. It is easy in these times to become dismissive... in an interview Terkel said before he wrote the book, he had the feeling that the nation was as apathetic and hopeless as it hadn't been in a long time. To some extent, that rings true.

But this book isn't just a foray into a depressing land with no hopes or prospects. Some of the military personnel have rather bleak things to say about the future, but despair is the flip side of the coin to hope - to talk about one without speaking about the other would be pointless.

The book's framework is this: Terkel examines how people have perservered, lived, strived, propsered, and died throughout recent American history. Famous people. Unknown people. People from all walks of life. Teachers, social workers, and politicians share the stage with unknown alcoholics, refugees, and disease victims. The results are not uniformly happy, but that is not important - the presence of hope in the face of what you would think of as unendurable odds is the theme. Hope, and its many forms - hope for life, hope for happiness, hope for change, hope for sheer survival.

If I've made this book sound like some kind of "Chicken Soup for the Soul," let me assure you, it isn't. It isn't candy-coated, dumbed-down, or an overly cheery insult to your intelligent. It won't eradicate anyone's cynicism, but I have to think that most people would come away from reading this book feeling better about their country and its inhabitants than before they read it... coming away a little changed themselves as well. And really, what more can you ask for in a book?

I would heartily recommend this book to anyone.

Give yourself a treat and savor the gift Studs gave us of the words of those out there fighting the good fight. From Dennis Kucinich to Frances Moore Lappe to Kathy Kelly to John Kenneth Galbraith, the words come from the heart. They tell the stories of their families, describe their work and why they keep at it.

Roberta Lynch,"I remember back to the Harold Washington campaign. I was a lakefront coordinator. I remember these efforts to build black political power in the city. People felt like it was rolling a rock up a hill, and here comes the Harold Washington campaign, and it's like an explosion.

You get the sense that history can surprise us, always. It's those surprises that break through the deadening, stultifying consensus that gives people a sense, Yes! We can."

Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times by Studs Terkel, The New Press, 2003 p. 326

Studs Terkel lends understanding to what it means to be an American by letting Americans speak. His newest addition in his long and celebrated list of books offers a collection of interviews with hopeful people or "hopeholders", history chroniclers, the celebrated and the un-knows. "In the following pages are portraits of the inheritors of the legacy of those past. They range in age from nonagenarians to young ones in their twenties".

Mr. Terkel is free-thinker. He holds a flame of hope. "As we enter the new millennium, hope appears to be an American attribute that has vanished for many, no matter what their class or condition in life. The official word has never been more arrogantly imposed. Passivity, in the face of such a bold, unabashed show of power from above, appears to be the order of the day. But it ain't necessarily so." His interviewer's selection reflects his viewpoint.

I first read his books to bone up on the art of interviewing. My horizons expanded upon reading interviews with various folks such as World War II heroines and heros, and those that had experienced death close up. Now, I read Studs Terkel books for the joy of learning about whatever he finds of interest. My burning question remain: How does he get people to open up, spill their guts, and let their hearts and human spirits shine through?

His introduction offers answers in his guiding voice. He is someone that's lived a free man's life, met amazing people, done amazing things, stood up for what he believed was right, and he is still going strong. His "voice" is that of a "regular guy". He's the kind of individual that has wisdom, wisdom enough to guide you as well as let you decide things for yourself. That seems to help his subjects to "open up".

Those that have read previous Studs Terkel books will not be disappointed with his latest book, Hope Dies Last. Those new to Terkel...well.... Sit back and enjoy and be prepared to be motivated. "Activism need not be a profession in itself, as it is in many cases here. It can be in the writing of a letter to the editor or to your congressperson; it can be in taking part in a local action or a national one, or, for that matter, a worldwide one".

Once again, I find myself trapped with a Studs Terkel book. Each book of his I read is better than the one before. This one is a wonder-I'm thinking of ordering several for gifts, one even for my Priest.
Easy reading, well organized & great topic.He is a literary treasure.

HOPE DIES LAST is an oral history of various personalities collected by renowned social commentator Studs Terkel. Terkel has collected stories from just about every conceivable category of people: teachers, politicians, clergy people, business people, young people, and old people, you name it, the group is probably represented in this book. Each oral history tells the story of someone who has maintained hope in a challenging or difficult moment. The situations vary, but each is meant to help us navigate in these very trying and uncertain days after September 11, 2001.

In his introduction, Terkel says that "Hope never trickles down. It always springs up." This book will certainly help people see that hope does spring up in third world countries, in violent city streets, in classrooms, churches, and just about everywhere else. This book will be helpful for just about anyone, whether facing a challenge or not. Teachers and clergy people will find the book very helpful since so much of the work of educators and members of eth clergy is keeping faith alive.

This book was given to me as a gift by my father and -- as I had not read anything by Terkel before -- I was not sure what to expect. I loved it. It is an enjoyable and easy read, being broken down into individual oral histories. But more importantly, it is inspiring and hopeful without being religious, preachy or shrill. I have recommended it to several people I know.

I love Studs Terkel to listen to. His writing is a little harder to catch the subtle humor. This book would be a great gift for someone living between the 1920s and 1960s - basically WWI & WWII era.

Studs Terkel presents the idea of hope and its existence in troubled times via oral interviews following the 9/11 attacks, globalization, and other events in this 2003 book. We hear from activist priests, union organizers, politicians, illegal immigrants, even some student activists who sat-in at Harvard to help the food service and janitorial workers attain a living wage. Economist John Kenneth Galbreath discusses Enron and corporate scandal, Enola Gay pilot Paul Tibbets discusses fighting terrorism, and a host of civil rights and peace activists describe their activities, views, and hopes for the future. We also hear from politicians like Jerry Brown, Dennis Kucinich, Dan Burton and Tom Hayden. Many interviewees are in their final years, yet their passion often burns bright. Several discuss terrorism, globalization, racial and class inequalities, and the course of the coming years. Many remain hopeful, but there are also strong doses of uncertainty and pessimism. Their stories are quite moving and enlightening, but once again Terkel stacks the deck with liberal activists (throwing in a couple conservatives for supposed balance). We therefore hear almost nothing from many imaginative voices in the center, a faulty omission also found in much of the news media.

Studs Terkel (1912-2008) was a master interviewer with a knack for letting people open up and tell their story. Despite his unfortunate habit of stacking the deck to the left, he gave us several excellent books such as HARD TIMES, WORKING, THE GOOD WAR, etc. HOPE DIES LAST isn't his best effort, but it is a worthy one.