Division Street: America

by Studs Terkel

Overview

A landmark reissue of Studs Terkel’s classic microcosm of America, with a new foreword by the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and co-creator of the Division Street Revisited podcast

“Remarkable. . . . Division Street astonishes, dismays, exhilarates.”
—The New York Times

When Division Street, Studs Terkel’s first book of oral history, was published in 1967 (it was commissioned by New Press founding director André Schiffrin), Terkel’s reputation as America’s foremost oral historian was established overnight.

Approaching Chicagoans as emblematic of the nation at large, Terkel set out with his tape recorder and spent a year talking to people about the place and time they lived in. The freewheeling conversations touched on race, family, education, work, prospects for the future—all topics that remain deeply contentious today. The more than seventy subjects included a Black woman who attended the 1963 March on Washington, a tool-and-die maker, a baker from Budapest, a closeted gay actor, and a successful but cynical ad man. As Tom Wolfe wrote, Studs was “one of those rare thinkers who is actually willing to go out and talk to the incredible people of this country.”

Although the interviewees were very different, most shared the hope for a good life for their children and the wish for a less divided and more just America, an America that would fulfill its promises. The real Chicago street referenced in the title takes on a metaphorical meaning as a symbol of the acute social divides of the 1960s—and highlights the continued relevance of Terkel’s work in our polarized times.

Now, over fifty years later, Melissa Harris and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mary Schmich have created the remarkable Division Street Revisited podcast, coming in January 2025, in which they have found and interviewed descendants of Terkel’s original subjects in seven rich episodes. The result is a moving and thought-provoking intergenerational conversation. Schmich’s foreword to the reissue highlights the evolution of the themes and issues Terkel explored. The extraordinary podcast—and the new edition of Division Street—together demonstrate Studs Terkel’s prescience and the enduring importance of his work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620979136
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	11/05/2024
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.96(d)

About the Author

Studs Terkel (1912–2008) was an award-winning author and radio broadcaster. He is the author of Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession; Coming of Age: Growing Up in the Twentieth Century; Talking to Myself: A Memoir of My Times; “The Good War”: An Oral History of World War II; Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do; The Studs Terkel Reader: My American Century; American Dreams: Lost and Found; The Studs Terkel Interviews: Film and Theater; Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression; Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith; Giants of Jazz; Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Troubled Times; And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey; Touch and Go: A Memoir; P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening; and Studs Terkel’s Chicago, all published by The New Press. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a recipient of a Presidential National Humanities Medal, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a George Polk Career Award, and the National Book Critics Circle 2003 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.

Date of Birth:

May 16, 1912

Date of Death:

October 31, 2008

Place of Birth:

New York, NY

Place of Death:

Chicago, IL

Education:

J.D., University of Chicago, 1934

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Division Street:
“Remarkable. . . . Division Street astonishes, dismays, exhilarates.”
—The New York Times

“Totally absorbing.”
—The New Yorker

“Reports not only multitudes divided, but the division in ourselves . . . as exciting as a good novel.”
—Nelson Algren

“A cross-section of all that is contained in humanity.”
—Chicago Tribune

From the Publisher

Reprint of the Pantheon Books edition originally published in 1967. Now printed on acid-free paper. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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