Tag Archives: WORKING

09.26.24
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WORKING/ROBERT A. CARO

If you are like anxiously waiting for the next installment of Robert Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson, WORKING by the author himself will help with your understanding of why patience is necessary. In this book Caro describedsin depth his approach to research and writing. His fundamental research ethos is Turn Every Page, a discipline dating back to his early days as a newspaper reporter.

If you are a follower of Caro’s work this book is an essential read that is most enlightening of Caro and also the enormous contributions made by his wife Ina.

With regard to the release date of the final Lyndon Johnson book the code word is patience knowing that the master is WORKING!

03.02.11
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WORKING- STUDS TERKEL AND TOM BROKAW

Tom Brokaw  is doing a series this week on NBC Nightly News about jobs in America. His reporting incorporates the dramatically changing workplace, the need to re-educate workers and the rather old-fashioned concept of apprenticeship.

I urge anyone interested in this subject to read Studs Terkel’s book  WORKING ,written in 1974. ( I am sure Tom Brokaw has already done so, and I believe he interviewed Terkel  before his death in 2008.)  Terkel’s WORKING is typical of his attitude driven writing and reporting.  No one ever questioned that Studs Turkel had a point of view. 

However, through hundreds of interviews into the life of working men and women Terkel developed in WORKING a panoramic view from the factory floor, stock yards,  the highway crew, the ditch,  of just how people make a living. He writes exactly what workers think about their daily labors.

Anyone with more than a passing interest in the current crisis faced by many American working men and woman, please read this book!  It is a great platform for understanding the workplace of the 21st century and exactly how we  arrived at where we are today.  You may recall that Terkel won a Pulitzer for his 1985 book Hard Times an Oral History of the Great Depression.  Another timely read. 

This is one more instance whereby I can say, ” I am dam glad I read that book!”  I am tempted to read WORKING again!  Please share your thoughts in the comments below.