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purplesquirrel666's review against another edition
5.0
This book is jam-packed with wisdom and insight into American culture and experiences.
renatasnacks's review against another edition
4.0
Good stuff. The only other book of his I'd read was Working, plus listening to some of his interviews here and there. This one is his "best of," with interviews from all his books plus the introductions to each book. The net result is a higher percentage of direct Terkel writing than usual, which is okay by me. It really is a decent social-historical glance at the century, and he's so good at getting good details out of people.
nonna7's review against another edition
5.0
It took me a while to read this book. I read just a little bit every evening. Then when it got down to less than 100 pages, I decided to just buckle down and finish it. The book is a collection of what Terkel saw as his best of the best: The Dream, Hard Times, The Good War, Division Street America, The Divide & Coming of Age. Terkel was one of the masters of the oral history. He interviewed hundreds of people at different times. Whether he's talking about the Depression, WWII, race or old age, he brings a unique perspective because he lived through these times and lived to a ripe old age himself. To be honest, I had the hardest time with the last part about Coming of Age. It made me uncomfortable because, at my advanced age, I see the same complaints that those people made then: not being respected, being treated as if you are stupid, having younger people just look right through you.
In a discussion recently on Facebook, a man mocked me with comments like "Do you need your Metamucil? Have you taken your nap today?" Since I seldom nap unless I am ill or haven't slept well & really have never needed anything to help my bowels work properly, I was shocked. Another person asked me if I had ever been anywhere other than to go across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge heading to the shore. When I told him I had lived in two different states, had visited nearly all of them at one time or another and had lived in Germany plus visited 18 countries, he had no response.
This is an interesting book if you want an overview of Terkel's work. I have some old copies of his books which I will probably get around to reading one of these days. What struck me as interesting, among other things, (because there is so much interesting stuff in this book), was talk about race and Reagan. More than one person opined that Reagan had made it ok to denigrate people racially again. Now we are hearing that about Trump. Let's not forget Bush1 and Willy Horton though. It seems to be uglier and more out there than ever though. Some say it's a reaction to an Obama presidency. If so, that says a lot about our country, and that's not a good thing.
In a discussion recently on Facebook, a man mocked me with comments like "Do you need your Metamucil? Have you taken your nap today?" Since I seldom nap unless I am ill or haven't slept well & really have never needed anything to help my bowels work properly, I was shocked. Another person asked me if I had ever been anywhere other than to go across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge heading to the shore. When I told him I had lived in two different states, had visited nearly all of them at one time or another and had lived in Germany plus visited 18 countries, he had no response.
This is an interesting book if you want an overview of Terkel's work. I have some old copies of his books which I will probably get around to reading one of these days. What struck me as interesting, among other things, (because there is so much interesting stuff in this book), was talk about race and Reagan. More than one person opined that Reagan had made it ok to denigrate people racially again. Now we are hearing that about Trump. Let's not forget Bush1 and Willy Horton though. It seems to be uglier and more out there than ever though. Some say it's a reaction to an Obama presidency. If so, that says a lot about our country, and that's not a good thing.
trogdor19's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book, because I love people telling their own stories. The intros written by Studs himself were too long and unfocused in my opinion. Also, the vast majority of entries focused on class. Class is an important issue in America and everywhere else, but come on, it isn't the only issue. I got really bored of reading whether somebody was rich or poor and skipped a lot of stories for this reason.
unrelatedwaffle's review
5.0
A wonderful compilation of some of the great interviews by Studs Terkel. At times moving and at others infuriating, a priceless look into the lives of ordinary Americans throughout the century. I recommend skipping the introductions to each section, because they "spoil" some of the great quotables and personalities from some of the interviews.
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