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.
