Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation
242 pp, $19.95 pbk, ISN 9781583675939
By Alan Wieder
Reviewed by Ron Jacobs
“…In the world of the word, Studs Terkel was a multi-talented man. He was an actor, a playwright, an organizer, a deejay, and an interviewer, among other things. Mostly, however, as Alan Wieder makes clear in his newly-published biography of Terkel, he was an ‘interpreter of America.’ His ability to not only listen, but also to ask the right questions of an interviewee, made his radio shows and books of oral history not only informative and enjoyable; those interviews became the standard to which others strived to achieve. It was as if Terkel had a certain magic once the tape recorder was turned on. According to Wieder and his research, that magic was in the manner Terkel listened and his ability to become the interviewee’s confidante in a matter of minutes….”
Read the review in Counterpunch
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