Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel, who died at the age of ninety-six last year was famous for his oral history of the lives ordinary Americans through through his “The Studs Terkel Program” broadcast from his native Chicago between 1952-1997 and his books such as “Hard Times” and “Working”.
In 1929, at the start of the Great Depression, when Terkel was 17 he experienced an epiphany which determined the future of his life. He was walking by the house of a family that had just been evicted. Their few possessions were sitting on the sidewalk. But that evening, electricians, plumbers, and carpenters who lived in the neighborhood came over, moved the family back in, turned on the gas, and fixed the plumbing. He said, “It’s the community in action that accomplishes more than any individual does, no matter how strong he may be.”
