Hard Times

An Oral History of the Great Depression

Studs Terkel

paperback

$16.95 / £11.99

In this unique re-creation of one of the most dramatic periods in modern American history, Studs Terkel recaptures the Great Depression of the 1930s in all its complexity. The book is a mosaic of memories from those who were richest to those who were most destitute: politicians like James Farley and Raymond Moley; businessmen like Bill Benton and Clement Stone; a six-day bicycle racer; artists and writers; racketeers; speakeasy operators, strikers, and impoverished farmers; people who were just kids; and those who remember losing a fortune.

Hard Times is not only a gold mine of information—much of it little known—but also a fascinating interplay of memory and fact, showing how the Depression affected the lives of those who experienced it firsthand, often transforming the most bitter memories into a surprising nostalgia.

Studs Terkel is the author of eleven books of oral history, including Hope Dies Last, Working, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning “The Good War” (all available in paperback from The New Press). In 2003 he was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.