Customer Reviews

Hope Dies Last: Keeping The Faith In Troubled Times

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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.

Terkel's system of personal stories told through the voices of his interviewees can be a bit disconcerting-just when you feel you are warming up to the person, the interview ends and we're off to someone else. However, the sum total is where Studs is heading--what do all of these voices in toto have to say? In this work, the answer is that we each have to fight the good fight and stay true to our ideals, regardless of our circumstances or backgrounds. As with his other works, there are ups and downs in these, but well worth the read--I particularly enjoyed the intro by Studs himself.