Author Guide · Oral History
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For forty-five years, from 1952 to 1997, Studs Terkel hosted an hour-long interview programme on the Chicago radio station WFMT, talking to everyone from Mahalia Jackson to James Baldwin. His books came out of the same tape recorder, pointed at people nobody else interviewed: steelworkers, waitresses, sharecroppers, soldiers, the very old. Born Louis Terkel in the Bronx in 1912, he had lost a national television show in the McCarthy era before he wrote a single oral history. Working (1974) was later ranked No. 54 on the Modern Library’s list of the century’s best English-language nonfiction, and “The Good War” won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize. This guide covers his 13 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 key books · 1967–2007 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Studs Terkel’s best-known books are Working (1974), in which people describe their jobs in their own words, Hard Times (1970), about the Great Depression, and “The Good War” (1984), about the Second World War, which won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Start with Working; the page below covers his 13 key books in order and what each one is about.
Where to Start with Studs Terkel
If you want his defining book
→ Working (1974) — people on their jobs, from a steelworker to a studio executive.
If you want the Pulitzer Prize winner
→ “The Good War” (1984) — the Second World War, remembered by those who were in it.
If you want history in ordinary voices
→ Hard Times (1970) — the Great Depression, from bankers to the jobless.
If you want something shorter and more personal
→ Chicago (1986) — his own city, in his own voice.
13 Studs Terkel Books, in Order
Division Street: America
Terkel’s first oral history: conversations with Chicagoans, rich and poor, Black and white, used as a cross-section of the United States in the mid-1960s. Division Street is a real Chicago street, but the book ranges across the whole city. It set the method for everything after it: almost no narration, interview after interview arranged so that the voices build the picture.
Hard Times
Americans from across the economic spectrum, from bankers and politicians to farmers, hobos and the unemployed, remember the 1930s, about forty years after the crash. The book shows how differently the same years were lived, and how much of the Depression people carried with them afterwards.
Working
Interviews with people in jobs of every kind, from steelworkers, waitresses and gravediggers to executives, about what they do all day and what it does to them. In 1999 a Modern Library panel ranked it No. 54 among the century’s 100 best works of English-language nonfiction. Stephen Schwartz turned it into a Broadway musical, Working, in 1978.
Talking to Myself
His first memoir, a look back at his own life and times: growing up in Chicago, where his parents ran a rooming house, and the decades of work in radio and television that led to the oral histories.
American Dreams
Some one hundred people, famous and unknown, talk about what the American Dream meant to them and what became of it. Among them are a former Miss USA and a former Ku Klux Klan leader, which makes it one of his most varied books.
“The Good War”
Soldiers, sailors, nurses, factory workers, generals and admirals remember the Second World War; most are American, with voices from Japan, Germany, Britain, Poland and the Soviet Union as well. The quotation marks in the title are the point: the interviews complicate the idea that any war can be simply good. It won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
Chicago
A short book about the city he lived in from childhood, mixing his own memories with its history, neighbourhoods and politics. It is the shortest way into Terkel, and a key to where many of the voices in his oral histories came from.
The Great Divide
A follow-up to American Dreams, recorded in the Reagan years: about a hundred people on money, class, work and the widening gap between Americans who were doing well and those who were not.
Race
Black and white Americans talk about race, prejudice and their own lives. Terkel lets the contradictions and discomfort in the conversations stand rather than resolving them.
Coming of Age
Interviews with people aged seventy and older, who look back across the twentieth century they lived through and talk about growing old. It treats old age with the same seriousness he gave to work and war.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
Published two years after the death of his wife, Ida, to whom he had been married since 1939: people from many walks of life, from doctors and nurses to the bereaved, talk about death, grief and what, if anything, they believe comes after.
Hope Dies Last
Activists, organisers and ordinary people who kept working for change through decades of setbacks. The book reflects his own long political engagement.
Touch and Go
His second memoir, published the year before he died: a loosely organised look back at his life and at Chicago, with what he called its “carbuncles and warts”.
In What Order to Read Studs Terkel
None of the oral histories depends on another, so you can read by subject. The only real pairs are American Dreams (1980) and its follow-up The Great Divide (1988), and his two memoirs, Talking to Myself (1977) and Touch and Go (2007), thirty years apart.
Publication order does show the shape of his career: the big American subjects first (the city, the Depression, work, the war), then race, old age, death and hope as he got older himself. A good route is Working, then Hard Times and “The Good War”, then whichever later subject pulls you.
A reading path
1. Working (1974)
2. Hard Times (1970)
3. “The Good War” (1984)
4. Race (1992)
5. Touch and Go (2007)
Everything Else Studs Terkel Published
Beyond the 13 key books: 5 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Early work, anthologies and late collections
5
5 books · 1957–2008
- 1957Giants of Jazzhis first book, profiles of jazz musicians, written with Milly Hawk Daniel
- 1997My American Centuryan anthology drawn from his oral histories
- 1999The Spectatortalk about film and theatre with the people who make them
- 2005And They All Sanghis radio conversations with musicians
- 2008P.S.further thoughts from a lifetime of listening
The years · 1912–2008
Quick facts about Studs Terkel
- Known for
- Turning tape-recorded interviews with ordinary Americans into oral histories, above all Working (1974) and the Pulitzer-winning “The Good War” (1984), and for forty-five years of radio interviews on WFMT in Chicago.
- 1912
- Born Louis Terkel in the Bronx
- 1934
- Law degree, University of Chicago; never practised
- 1952
- The Studs Terkel Program starts on WFMT
- 1974
- Working
- 1985
- Pulitzer Prize for “The Good War”
- 2008
- Dies in Chicago, aged 96
- Born
- 16 May 1912, the Bronx, New York City, as Louis Terkel; the family moved to Chicago when he was a child
- Died
- 31 October 2008, at home in Chicago, aged 96
- Education
- University of Chicago, 1932; law degree 1934, but he never practised
- Radio
- The Studs Terkel Program, WFMT Chicago, 1952–1997
- Married
- Ida Goldberg, a social worker, in 1939; she died in 1999
- Honours
- Pulitzer Prize (1985); National Humanities Medal and National Book Foundation Medal (both 1997)
The red mark is 1974: Working, his best-known oral history.
How Studs Terkel Writes: The Tape Recorder and the Edit
Terkel’s books are made almost entirely of other people’s speech. He recorded long conversations, then cut and arranged the transcripts into first-person monologues, each introduced by a few lines setting the scene. The skill is in the editing and the ordering: a steelworker’s anger placed next to an executive’s worry, a general next to a private.
The method came from radio. He worked on the WPA Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s, acted in radio soap operas, and from 1952 to 1997 interviewed writers, musicians and activists five days a week on WFMT. He chose subjects people rarely talked about at length — their jobs, their money, race, ageing, death — and asked the people usually left out of history books.
Terkel never pretended to be neutral; he was a lifelong man of the left, and the books show it in whom he chose to listen to. But he lets his interviewees contradict each other and himself. For writers who build books from voices the same way, from Svetlana Alexievich to Alex Kotlowitz, see Authors like Studs Terkel.
Watch
Studs Terkel: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times
Harry Kreisler talks with Terkel for the UC Berkeley programme Conversations with History, released in 2003 under the title of his book Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times.
Frequently asked questions about Studs Terkel’s books
How many books has Studs Terkel written?
Eighteen under his own name. Thirteen are the key books on this page, from Division Street: America (1967) to Touch and Go (2007); the other five are his first book, Giants of Jazz (1957), the anthology My American Century (1997), The Spectator (1999), And They All Sang (2005) and P.S. (2008).
What are Studs Terkel’s books in order?
Division Street: America (1967), Hard Times (1970), Working (1974), Talking to Myself (1977), American Dreams: Lost and Found (1980), “The Good War” (1984), Chicago (1986), The Great Divide (1988), Race (1992), Coming of Age (1995), Will the Circle Be Unbroken? (2001), Hope Dies Last (2003) and Touch and Go (2007).
Where should I start with Studs Terkel?
With Working (1974), his best-known book: people in every kind of job talking about what they do all day. If you want something shorter first, try Chicago (1986).
What is Studs Terkel’s most famous book?
Working (1974). In 1999 a Modern Library panel ranked it No. 54 among the century’s 100 best works of English-language nonfiction. “The Good War” (1984) is the one that won the Pulitzer Prize.
What order should I read Studs Terkel books in?
There is no series order; each oral history stands alone. Most readers start with Working, then go on to Hard Times and “The Good War”. Read The Great Divide after American Dreams, which it follows up.
Which Studs Terkel book won the Pulitzer Prize?
“The Good War”: An Oral History of World War Two (1984), which won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
What is oral history in Studs Terkel’s work?
Books built almost entirely from recorded conversations with ordinary people, edited and arranged so that their own words carry the story rather than a historian’s summary. Each of his oral histories gathers many voices around one subject: work, the Depression, the war, race, old age, death or hope.
Why was Studs Terkel called Studs?
He was born Louis Terkel. While acting in a play alongside another actor named Louis, he was given the nickname Studs to tell them apart, after Studs Lonigan, the hero of James T. Farrell’s trilogy, which he was reading at the time.
Where was Studs Terkel from?
He was born in the Bronx, New York City, on 16 May 1912, and moved to Chicago with his family as a child. His parents ran a rooming house there, and he lived in Chicago for the rest of his life.
Was Studs Terkel blacklisted?
Yes. In the McCarthy era he lost Studs’ Place, a largely improvised national television show set in a Chicago bar, which had started in 1949. His radio career continued, and from 1952 he hosted his interview programme on WFMT.
Was Working made into a musical?
Yes. Stephen Schwartz adapted it as the Broadway musical Working, with songs by Schwartz, James Taylor, Mary Rodgers, Micki Grant and Craig Carnelia. It opened in May 1978 and closed after 24 performances, but has been widely staged since.
Is Studs Terkel still alive?
No. He died at his home in Chicago on 31 October 2008, aged 96. His proposed epitaph was “Curiosity did not kill this cat.”
Footnotes
- Studs Terkel — Wikipedia
- Terkel, Studs — Encyclopedia.com
- Studs Terkel dies at 96 — MPR News / AP, 2008
- Studs Terkel dies — WBEZ, 2008
- Working: show history — MTI
- Studs Terkel: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times — UC Berkeley IIS
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Curiosity did not kill this cat.”
— Studs Terkel, his proposed epitaph, quoted by WBEZ (2008)
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