Working

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

Studs Terkel’s classic oral history of Americans’ working lives—and the inspiration for Barack Obama’s new Netflix series about work in the twenty-first century

“Reading these stories, I started to consider my own place in the world, and understand how connected we are to one another. [Working] helped inform the choices I made in my own work.” —President Barack Obama

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 moving snapshot of people’s feelings about their working lives, as well as a timeless look at how work fits into American life.

Working received rave reviews upon its initial publication, including from the New York Times Book Review, which praised its “incredible abundance of marvelous beings” and “very special electricity and emotional power,” and the Boston Globe, which called it a “magnificent book . . . a work of art,” adding, “To read it is to hear America talking.”

Nearly fifty years after its initial publication, Working remains a deeply relevant American classic, one of the most important works of oral history ever published.

Praise

“Reading these stories, I started to consider my own place in the world, and understand how connected we are to one another. [Working] helped inform the choices I made in my own work.”
—President Barack Obama
“I cannot find words to express sufficiently my admiration for Studs Terkel’s Working. . . . Only an interviewer of genius, exploiting the tape recorder as hardly anyone else has done, could possibly have brought it forth.”
—Lewis Mumford

News and Reviews

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Get 30% off these selected titles by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel with code TNPSTUDS through May 31:

In March 1970, Maya Angelou sat down with Studs Terkel for a radio interview about her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Tampa Bay Times

Mention of the book in review of "Working: A Musical"

Books by Studs Terkel

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

Studs Terkel

And They All Sang
Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey

Studs Terkel

Coming of Age
Growing Up in the Twentieth Century

Studs Terkel

Hard Times
An Oral History of the Great Depression

Studs Terkel

Goodreads Reviews