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Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression

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"Hard Times": An Oral History of the Great Depression
First edition
AuthorStuds Terkel
LanguageEnglish
SubjectGreat Depression
PublisherPantheon Books
Publication date
1970
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages480
ISBN978-1-56584-656-2

Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (original: 1970/ latest edition: 2005) is a telling of the oral history of the Great Depression written by Studs Terkel. It is a firsthand account of people of varying socio-economic status who lived in the United States during the Great Depression.

The first edition of the book was published in 1970. The 1986 print included a new introduction by Terkel. The latest edition was published in 2005.

Chapters

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  • Foreword, January–February 1986
  • A Personal Memoir (and parenthetical comment)

Book One

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  • The March
  • The Song
  • Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
  • Hard Travelin’
  • The Big Money
  • Man and Boy
  • God Bless’ the Child
  • Bonnie Laboring Boy
  • Three Strikes

Book Two

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  • Old Families
  • Member of the Chorus
  • High Life
  • At the Clinic
  • Sixteen Ton
  • The Farmer is the Man
  • Editor and Publisher

Book Three

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Book Four

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  • Merely Passing Through
  • Three O’Clock in the Morning
  • A Cable

Book Five

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  • The Fine and Lively Arts
  • Public Servant – The City
  • Evictions, Arrests, and Other Running Sores
  • Honor and Humiliation
  • Strive and Succeed

Epilogue

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  • The Raft
  • A Touch of Rue

Literary significance and reception

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Hard Times is known for providing an equal representation of experiences across a broad spectrum of socio-economic status, interviewing famous and influential people as well as others from a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.[1] It has been called "A true classic! Exceptional oral history of a wide strata of Americans caught up in the 'hard times' of the Great Depression."[2]

References

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