I came across Studs Terkel years ago after reading Max Brooks’ World War Z and learning that he’d modelled the book’s conceit off of the older journalist’s work. Terkel is, along with Svetlana Alexievich, the foremost practitioner of oral history, a form if journalistic prose that compiles stories individuals transcribed from different individuals and stitched together into a cohesive whole. The result is a kind of tapestry, through which a larger story emerges from the mingling of various strands.
Hard Times covers the Depression in the United States, ranging all over the country and a ross time, with a focus on recollections from 1928 to the early 40s, though participants are free to go where their reminiscions take them. While there us no shortage of hard luck tales, Terkel avoids homogenaity, talking to union men and big business types, artists and activists, socialists and staunch Republicans. He speaks with major figures, including members of Roosevelt's cabinet and the man who ran against him in 36, but also a lot of ordinary folk. Plenty of those he speaks with cruised through the depression just fine, while others suffered terribly. Interestingly, he speaks with some folks who were too young to experience the Depression firsthand--often the relatives of participants who had--offering an interesting counterpoint.
There isn't much to say about the prose, as nearly all is transcriptions, but the interviews are sharp and focused, the anecdotes interesting, and you don't get the sense that Terkel took pains to sanitize unpopular opinions. Some of these folks are downright unpleasant, but they still get their say, same as everyone else. Anything less would be untrue.