Touch and Go, Studs Terkel
Touch and Go, Studs Terkel
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Touch and Go
A Memoir

Author: Studs Terkel, Sydney Lewis

Narrator: Norman Dietz

Unabridged: 9 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/31/2007

Synopsis

At nearly ninety-five, Studs Terkel has written about everyone's life, it seems, but his own. In Touch and Go, he offers a memoir that—embodying the spirit of the man himself—is youthful, vivacious, and enormous fun.

Terkel begins by taking us back to his early childhood with his father, mother, and two older brothers, describing the hectic life of a family trying to earn a living in Chicago. He then goes on to recall his own experiences—as a poll watcher charged with stealing votes for the Democratic machine, as a young theatergoer, and eventually as an actor himself in both radio and on the stage—giving us a brilliant and often hilarious portrait of the Chicago of the 1920s and 1930s. He tells of his beginnings as a disc jockey after World War II and as an interviewer and oral historian—a craft he would come to perfect and indeed personify. Finally, he discusses his involvement with progressive politics, leading inevitably to his travails during the McCarthy period, when he was blacklisted and thrown out of work despite having become by then one of the country's most popular television hosts.

Fans of Studs Terkel will find much to discover in these remarkable reminiscences. Others will be captivated to learn of the unique and eclectic life of one of America's greatest living legends.

About Studs Terkel

Born in 1912, Studs Terkel grew up in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1932 and from the University of Chicago Law School in 1934. He was an actor in radio soap operas, a disk jockey, a radio commentator, and a television emcee, and he traveled all over the world doing on-the-spot interviews. He also hosted a daily radio program on WFMT in Chicago that was syndicated throughout the country. He is the author of American Dreams: Lost and Found; Working; Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression; Division Street: America Giants of Jazz; and Talking to Myself. He died on October 31, 2008.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Erik on March 16, 2017

Rambling, but charming, this is one of Terkel's autobiographical efforts. Written near the end of his life--he was 93--it ranges through the 20th and into the 21st century, celebrating not only the many, ordinary and extraordinary, who touched his life, but also the city of Chicago. I was brought up......more

Goodreads review by Jan C on February 23, 2020

A romp through Studs Terkel's memories. Luckily he was able to lift them from previous books. My mother was a big fan of his. So I took a number of her books, including a number of Studs'. Years ago I read Hard Times and enjoyed it. My mother started with Division Street: America and moved on to Wor......more

Goodreads review by Ron on February 12, 2008

This is a great conversationalist's book. Reading it is like talking with a friend over a beer or a glass of wine. Studs has been around a long time and seen a lot of changes. He is a lover of humanity and it comes through in everything he talks about. This is a book that will guide the reader to ot......more

Goodreads review by John on January 08, 2020

Many years ago I read two of Studs Terkel's books of recollections from everyday people, "Working" detailing many different professions and "Hard Times" about the Depression and really enjoyed them. It was a treat to read of his recollections of his life when he was in his 90's near the end of his l......more

Goodreads review by Jon on June 16, 2024

Terkel lived quite a life and I count his oral histories as some of the books that have had some of the longest thought generating content in my adult life. I did not know all he did and accomplished. Touch and Go delivers intelligence, human empathy, culture, and much history. This book is 3.75 sta......more

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