In honor of legendary author and oral historian Studs Terkel, we’ve put together excerpts from five of his most iconic books. Terkel defined broadcast journalism in the mid-twentieth century with his radio program, The Studs Terkel Program, and went on to write some of the most famous oral histories of his time, with the encouragement of New Press founding director André Schiffrin. He let his interviewees tell their own stories in their own voices, and through them he painted an honest and intimate history of the American people.

“The Good War”: An Oral History of World War II

“The Good War”, for which Studs Terkel won the Pulitzer Prize, is a testament not only to the experience of war but also to Terkel’s extraordinary skills as an interviewer. As always, his subjects are open and unrelenting in their analyses of themselves and their experiences, producing what People magazine has called “a splendid epic history of World War II.” With this volume, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2024, Terkel expanded his scope to the global and the historical. The result is a masterpiece of oral history that holds it power through the decades.

 

 

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do

Perhaps Studs Terkel’s best-known book, Working is a compelling, fascinating look at jobs and the people who do them. Consisting of over one hundred interviews conducted with everyone from gravediggers to studio heads, this book provides a timeless snapshot of people’s feelings about their working lives, as well as a relevant and lasting look at how work fits into American life. Working celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2024 as an enduring look into labor in America. In 2009, The New Press published an illustrated adaptation of Working, in which comic-book artist Harvey Pekar collaborates with other graphic artists to create a fun, brand new way to enjoy Terkel’s seminal work.

 

 

Division Street: America

Studs Terkel’s first book of oral history, Division Street established his reputation as America’s foremost oral historian. Viewing the inhabitants of a single city, Chicago, as a microcosm of the nation at large, he chronicles the thoughts and feelings of some seventy people from widely varying backgrounds in terms of class, race, and personal history. In 2024, The New Press published a landmark reissue with a new foreword by the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and co-creator of the Division Street Revisited podcast (January 2025), which finds and interviews descendants of Terkel’s original subjects in seven rich episodes.

 

 

Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression

In this bestseller, Terkel compiles a fascinating mosaic of memories of the Great Depression from people across the socioeconomic spectrum. Hard Times is not only a gold mine of information but a fascinating interplay of memory and fact, revealing how the Depression affected the lives of those who experienced it firsthand. In 2012, The New Press published an illustrated edition, with photographs from the Farm Security Administration archive bringing new dimensions to the text.

 

 

Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Troubled Times

Hope Dies Last is Studs Terkel’s inspiring oral history of social action in America, first published in 2003. For Terkel, these interviews represented a change that had taken place as America careened into uncertainty and despair. Terkel’s subjects express with grace and warmth their secret hopes and dreams, combining to tell a story of optimism and persistence that resonates with the eloquence of conviction. These inspiring lessons are evergreen and carry enduring wisdom to us today.