Studs Terkel (1912–2008) was a radio-talk-show host, raconteur, genius interviewer and oral historian. There are mothers that work eleven, twelve hours a day … This is an all-round job, day and night’ They know one of two things: he didn’t hurt and I like him, or he’s a son of a bitch.’ And then there is the miner-turned-dentist Stephen Bartlett, who wants patients to appreciate his work: ‘I don’t think a patient knows whether you’re a good dentist or a bad one. There is garbage man Roy Schmidt – who, at 58, is conscious that the physical labour is getting ever more difficult – and grocery-store checker Babe Secoli, whose 30 years at the cash register have delivered a sixth sense for picking out shoplifters. Elsewhere, some of the most compelling stories emerge from the most mundane jobs. The amount of money spent in this bar pays me’). Winter goes so fast sometimes you just don’t feel it’Īmong the interviewees is Eric Hoellen, a Chicago janitor with a sideline in snooping for the FBI, and the unimprovably named Hots Michaels, who plays piano in a downtown hotel lounge (‘I consider myself a whiskey salesman. The smell of grass when it’s cut, it’s just fantastic. ‘You have the air all day and it’s just beautiful. Few segments of society are unrepresented. The interviewees are granted the space to speak candidly, and at length, about their work and its significance. A Pulitzer Prize-winning radio and television broadcaster, Studs Terkel brings together conversations with more than 100 Americans about their working lives – but the author’s voice is almost entirely absent. First published in 1972, Working has never lost its status as a classic of social history – not only as a document of a nation during a time of upheaval, but as a triumph of the interviewer’s craft.

Working by Studs Terkel