Introduction — Reflections on Work

Abstract

Actor, broadcaster, oral historian and prize-winning author, Studs Terkel, was well known for his books that addressed the lives of ordinary people. In 1974, he published a book called Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. In contrast to research that treats workers as objects, this book simply and yet powerfully gave voice to the subjective experience of work and working. Based on over 100 edited interviews with workers across a variety of occupations in the USA (largely centred around Chicago), Terkel highlighted the meaning of, and attitudes towards, work, skilfully capturing dreams and disappointments often in quite moving accounts. These accounts were historically grounded in the milieu and specificities of American working life in the early 1970s.