11/16/2007
Studs Terkel at 95
I'm a fan of Studs Terkel.
"I have, after a fashion, been celebrated for having celebrated the lives of the uncelebrated among us; for lending voice to the face in the crowd."
When I started this blog, one of the first recommendations I made was to check out Terkel's book of Depression interviews, Hard Times. I wrote:
When I was in high school, I remember that the Depression was a time in American History covered in a single class period; it came after The Roaring Twenties, and before WWII. There were breadlines, and lots of people were poor, and Franklin D Roosevelt started The New Deal. Finished.
This mind-blower of a book transcribes interviews with people who lived through that. The Republicans had, with their market-oriented, hands-off, small-government economic policies (sound familiar?) driven the economy straight into the toilet (hang on), and while people lost their jobs, their houses, and starved (not done yet), steadfastly denied what was happening, and that their policies had anything to do with it (some things never change).
There's a reason that labor unions were a large part of the American cultural and political landscape until the Reagan era, and the people in this book will explain why, as well as, among other things; what it was like to be old and broke before Social Security,and what it was like to drift around the country after abandoning your family because you couldn't find a job.
Terkel's books - except for a few - consist of interviews. People talking about the Depression, race, work, faith, WW II, the pursuit of the American Dream, getting old. Terkel asks, he listens, he records. The resulting books are revelations. I recommend them all.
His latest book is Touch and Go, an autobiography. There's a short piece about it by Amy Goodman. Terkel muses on current events:
"How could it be, at the end of World War II, we were the most honored, powerful nation in the world? 'Honored' is the key word. Today we are the most despised. How come? The American public itself has no memory of the past. Gore Vidal uses the phrase 'United States of Amnesia.' I say, United States of Alzheimer's. What do we know about it -- why are we there in Iraq? They say, when you attack our policy, you are attacking the boys. On the contrary, they're defending those boys. Welcoming them back home with their families. The war is built upon an obscene lie. We know that now. This lack of history has been denied us."
And when looking for copies of Terkel's books for yourself or friends, don't forget your local public library, or the used-book gem of the internet, Abebooks.
Thanks to Cookie for the tip.