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Loading... Coming of Age: The Story of Our Century by Those Who've Lived It (1995)by Studs Terkel
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This was another interview/profile selection from Terkel. All participants were over 70 years old, predominantly Chicago based, and thoughtful about the activism in which they were leaders or otherwise involved. Important issues presented by many participants were union issues, violence and non-violence, racism, health, poverty, environmentalism, and religious belief. The world has changed dramatically across the lifespan of those interviewed, and the point of this book is to remember that these folks survived the depression, several wars, the Red Scare, and intense technological advance while continuing living throughout these experiences with as much dignity and love of life as they could muster. I was impressed with how much those interviewed cared about the world and tried to make it better while dealing with their own human limitations. no reviews | add a review
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Coming of Age: The Story of Our Century by Those Who've Lived It is a collective portrait of our times, woven from the voices of seventy very different people, the youngest of whom is seventy and the oldest ninety-nine. Together they give us an extraordinary panorama of American life and work throughout this century and underscore the ways in which the times have changed.
Coming of Age is also, in many ways, a sequel to Terkel's acclaimed Working (1974), for it traces the extraordinary ways our working lives have changed in the past few decades - often beyond recognition. We meet politicians and preachers, advertising men and hucksters. Here is the partner in a large law firm, suing the colleagues who have forced him out; here, too, is the carpenter, accepting as inevitable the replacement of his skilled tasks by machine. But this is not a group of disgruntled Luddites; most accept - indeed welcome - the new technologies, yet they all deplore the degree to which human contact has declined and how traditional hopes and aspirations have been superseded by the often ruthless demands of the modern corporation. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)305.260973Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Groups of people Age groups Older people (60+)LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I really liked hearing about the previous century directly from the people who lived through it. I also like that Terkel interviews people from all walks of life, including people of diverse political viewpoints, ethnicities, religions, and social classes, among others. Most of the interviews took place around 1994, and many of the interviewees had great insights on the state of American society at the end of the century and the direction it was headed in. ( )