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Studs Terkel

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do Paperback – February 28, 1997

by Studs Terkel (Author)

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A Pulitzer Prize winner interviews workers, from policemen to piano tuners: “Magnificent . . . To read it is to hear America talking.” ―The Boston Globe

A National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestseller

Studs Terkel’s classic oral history Working is a compelling look at jobs and the people who do them. Consisting of over one hundred interviews with everyone from a gravedigger to a studio head, this book provides a “brilliant” and enduring portrait of people’s feelings about their working lives. This edition includes a new foreword by New York Times journalist Adam Cohen (Forbes).

“Splendid . . . Important . . . Rich and fascinating . . . The people we meet are not digits in a poll but real people with real names who share their anecdotes, adventures, and aspirations with us.” ―Business Week

“The talk in Working is good talk―earthy, passionate, honest, sometimes tender, sometimes crisp, juicy as reality, seasoned with experience.” ―The Washington Post

Print length

640 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The New Press
Publication date

February 28, 1997
Dimensions

5.25 x 1.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1565843428
ISBN-13

978-1565843424
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Editorial Reviews

Review

A deep penetration of American thought and feeling . . . A celebration of individuals . . . A masterpiece. -- Los Angeles Times

An enormous amount of exciting material. . . . An incredible abundance of marvelous beings. . . . A very special electricity and emotional power. -- The New York Times Book Review

An impressive achievement . . . A very valuable document. No journalist alive wields a tape recorded as effectively as Studs Terkel. -- Newsweek

Remarkable . . . the range is enormous. . . . Work is the theme and we learn a lot about these trades. -- The Wall Street Journal

Splendid . . . Important . . . Rich and fascinating . . . The people we meet are not digits in a poll but real people with real names who share their anecdotes, adventures, and aspirations with us. -- Business Week

The real American experience . . . The poetry of real people . . . The hardness of real lives . . . A grand subject and a splendid book. -- Chicago Daily News

[A] magnificent book . . .. A work of art. To read it is to hear America talking. -- Boston Globe

About the Author

Studs Terkel (1912–2008) was an award-winning author and radio broadcaster. He is the author of Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession; Division Street: America, Coming of Age: Growing Up in the Twentieth Century; Talking to Myself: A Memoir of My Times; "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II; Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do; The Studs Terkel Reader: My American Century; American Dreams: Lost and Found; The Studs Terkel Interviews: Film and Theater; Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression; Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith; Giants of Jazz; Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Troubled Times; And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey; Touch and Go: A Memoir; P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening; and Studs Terkel's Chicago, all published by The New Press. He was a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters and a recipient of a Presidential National Humanities Medal, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a George Polk Career Award, and the National Book Critics Circle 2003 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The New Press (February 28, 1997)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 640 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1565843428
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1565843424
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.54 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1.5 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #83,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #57 in Labor & Industrial Economic Relations (Books)
- #58 in Labor & Industrial Relations (Books)
- #358 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
398 ratings

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Studs Terkel

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Studs Terkel (1912-2008) was a free spirit, an outspoken populist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a terrible ham, and one of the best-loved characters on the American scene. Born in New York in 1912, he lived in Chicago for over eight decades. His radio show was carried on stations throughout the country.

Customer reviews

5 star		79%
4 star		13%
3 star		6%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Ricardo Mio

Intriguing

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2021

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This book was originally published in 1972, and made quite a sensation. I was in college at the time, and, having worked in a gas station for five years, was intrigued. However, while I read several reviews, I never got around to actually reading the book--until now. What I found so intriguing was what Mr. Terkel did--interview a number of common Americans who worked in mostly mundane, low-paying jobs (such as I had), and, in using their own words told their story.

Louis "Studs" Terkel was a writer who liked people, especially people who worked hard for a living. Besides being one of heck of writer, he was also an actor, and radio personality. He received the Pulitzer for Literature in 1985 for "The Good War--An Oral History of World War Two". He was nicknamed "Studs" while acting in a play with another person named Louis. To keep the two straight, the director gave Terkel the nickname "Studs", after the fictional character he was playing—Studs Lonigan.

Besides interviewing common workers--coal minors, steel workers, janitors, itinerant farm workers, nurses, barbers, airline stewardesses, telephone operators, gravediggers, etc., he also interviewed people in high-end jobs--business executives, coaches, professional athletes, school teachers, lawyers, stock brokers, a studio head, and a media personality (film critic Pauline Kael). In particular, Ms Kael's comments about working people are most telling; she knew of the endless, mind-numbing hours of being a common worker, because earlier in her career she had been one. While this book is imminently quotable, I have chosen Ms. Kael's comments because they summarize best what it's like to be a bottom-level worker: "I've spent most of my life working at jobs I hated. I've worked at boring office jobs. I never felt they were demeaning, but they exhausted my energy and spirit. I do think that most people work at jobs that mechanize them and depersonalize them. . . ."

This book is endlessly fascinating, but at 589 pages takes time and patience to wade through. Still, if you've ever been a bottom-level worker, or wish to know what it's like, you will appreciate the truth that is contained in these pages. Five stars

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

D.

Important for writers, purely entertaining

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2018

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If you're a fiction writer, this is almost a must-have resource for story ideas and character research. If you just want a good read, this is a fantastic collection of insights into the efforts, dreams, and disappointments of your fellow humans. No collection of essays has made me feel more connected and more humbled to be a person, a working person. Really-- this is just a phenomenal book, even now in 2018. You'll feel the anochronism at times, but more strongly you'll feel the timelessness of the text and its purpose, its point. Read it. Enjoy.

30 people found this helpful

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Robert G. Leroe

Still relevant

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2020

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The first reason you may not want to read this book is that it is about 50 years old. Yet with a few exceptions, it holds up pretty well. There are but a few professions that no longer exist, but are nonetheless interesting to hear about. Attitudes towards work haven't changed too much. To get an inside look at a wide array of jobs people have and what they think about them, this is invaluable...and entertaining. I've been in the Army and I'm a minister, and I was sad to not see these two included. But the variety is impressive and each person's story keeps your interest. Occasionally you feel sorry for some, and I kept wondering, "What happened to this person?" By now, many are likely no longer with us. I've heard audio of Studs Terkel, but this is the first book of his I've read. He is barely in it, other than an occasional, brief question to keep the person talking. Very worth while.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Gary Schroeder

Many jobs are too small for the spirit

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2012

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Studs Terkel's classic book "Working" is nothing more than a large volume of transcribed confessions of working people. The concept is deceptively simple, but what it reveals about a common activity that unites all of humanity is often truly surprising. Do you hate your job? Guess what. Most people do! Terkel gets workers from waitresses and steel workers to dentists and ad executives to confess what's really in their souls and how they really feel about what they do to make a buck. The surprise is how universal many of the feelings we have about our jobs truly are.

One of the most striking things to me is how little has changed in the intervening 40 years since the interviews contained in "Working" were first collected. When describing work, nostalgia runs rampant among Americans. We look back longingly to the days when America was a mighty manufacturing powerhouse, when we domestically produced much of what we consume. We often think about steel or car manufacturing through a gauzy haze. "Working" clears the haze away and reveals a far less rosy truth: manufacturing work is often robotic, dehumanizing, and physically punishing. Men who do this work have no love for it and their bodies often pay a steep price for it. They didn't view it as romantic or noble then and they probably don't now. It's just a means to make a living wage.

Of the dozens (and dozens) of interviews in the book, a series of common themes are present. Here are the ones that caught my attention.

There's a recognition among long-time workers that profit is king over all. The people who produce product are mere cogs in the machine.

Everyone has a secret dream job, what they imagine they'd rather be doing, where things would be better somehow.

Even if people don't like their jobs, they're often proud of their personal ability, how fast they can complete a task, how accurately, tips they've learned through years of experience. They possess hard-won knowledge that took years to accumulate.

Laborers often see management as oppressors who play for a different team. They're to be thwarted in petty ways whenever the opportunity presents itself. It's often a game to occupy time or a way to build camaraderie amongst peers. "How can we get back at the Man?"

People recognize there own limitations and don't necessarily want to be treated as equals, but they do want to be respected, no matter what their station. They want others to recognize their value, that the product or service being offered by the company wouldn't be viable without their efforts. They know that society couldn't produce a steel beam or a car or serve hot meals to people who demand them if it weren't for them. These jobs lack status and glamour, but the world would stop without them.

The "old days" are always better, no matter what era you grew up in. Nostalgia for a better past is universal. There's a feeling that "back in my day, there was craft to the job, now work's just robotic or talentless." Also, "kids today!" and how they lack drive or commitment is a common refrain. There's nothing new under the sun.

40 years ago people were already complaining that the days of company loyalty were over, the idea that you could work for one firm for a lifetime and be rewarded or valued were a thing of the past.

Corporate life is empty, and corporate success an illusion. Big money managers are petrified of the hotshot youngster nipping at their heels, angling for their job. They worry about their age, that they're disposable once they're over 50. Executives report feeling a moral hollowness about their work. As one of the interviewees put it "in the business world, in order to do a better job, you have to become ruthless. In order to make more money, you have to care for people less. In order to succeed, you have to be willing to stab your competitor in the back."

People who have found ladder-climbing to be an empty pursuit stop hungering for status and no longer care about it. When that happens, they're free to pursue their heart's desire, or something that makes them feel like they're truly contributing to the world in a meaningful way, in a way beyond making profit for a corporation.

Many jobs are "too small for one's spirit." People need to feel challenged in order to be fulfilled. A job which is secure and pays adequately may mean complete misery if there's no challenge or sense of meaningful contribution.

105 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

walser

A fascinating read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

People saying what they think about their own lines of work, what bothers them, what makes them tick. A fascinating read.

Rational man

The author simply asks questions and people answer

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

A social historian.
Highly recommended.

Ben

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great book that explains how much spek really means to us.

Randy McElligott

A Turkel classic

Reviewed in Canada on October 31, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is studs turkel's greatest work in my opinion and it is still as relevant today as it was when it was first written. The personal accounts from regular people are engaging and fascinating!!😀

lostdiaspora

It's amazing how well this has worn in nearly 40 years

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2015

Verified Purchase

It's amazing how well this has worn in nearly 40 years. The voices resonate down the years and I think are as relevant today as they were when originally uttered. It's bite sized to as you can dip in and out of each story.

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