Working

It is a rich and memorable oral history of America told by more than a hundred workers across a huge slice of American working life including those of paperboys, photographers, switchboard operators, actors, writers, executives, barbers, sanitation truck drivers, stockbrokers, professional athletes, teachers, grave diggers, lettuce pickers and many more.

It shows how work is a search for both a daily crust and meaning. The book inspired a musical and a recent Netflix series with Obama as the host.

This book inspired me to write a book about the meaning of work. It introduced me to how some people find meaning or at least interest in their work, and others find work a daily humiliation. Terkel is a brilliant storyteller who interviews everyone from the people who park your car to architects and politicians. They don’t all have meaningful work, but they all seek to be treated with dignity on the job.

Firefighter, receptionist, janitor. Bank teller, jazz saxophonist, piano tuner. Meter reader, shipping clerk, washroom attendant, stockbroker, realtor, football coach. Accountant, stewardess, bag boy. Glue renderer, strip miner, priest. Most (but not all) of these jobs are still around, and while the way of work has undergone vast technological and economic change in the fifty years (!) since this book of interviews was published, the why of work has not. “The Job,” writes Terkel, “is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a… show more.

You can’t talk about the art of oral history without paying tribute to Terkel, the late writer, historian, and broadcaster. He won a Pulitzer Prize for 1984’s "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II, but my pick is 1974’s Working, in which people from all walks of life — from a gravedigger to a prominent actor (Rip Torn) — share the details of how they make a living. It’s a wonderful time capsule of a book.