Not only am I pleasantly surprised with “Working” by Studs Terkel, but I definitely agree with all the acclaim it has obviously received, evident through the critic reviews plastered all over the front cover. Business Week wrote,“ Splendid…important…Rich and fascinating… The people we meet are not digits in a poll but real people with real names who share their anecdotes, adventures, and aspirations with us.” This reaction definitely captures what this book, and a Studs Terkel interview offer. This book is essentially a time capsule for the civic attitude and makeup of our current day society. This book does not censor the interviewee’s feelings in any shape or form (which is at all obvious). The people’s point of views, whether they are offensive or even racist are kept free of political correctness and censorship. Through this, Terkel achieves a sense of honesty with this book, and provides a window into the minds and attitudes of the western world. The way the interviews are presented is not meant to judge the individuals, but to showcase the worlds in which they have grown up in and are currently living. The interviews and anecdotes both explicitly and implicitly touch on society’s problems.

The majority of stories almost come across as if the people are beaten, that they are unhappy with their work (and lives) and are trapped with no way out. There seems to be a large degree of helplessness in peoples lives, these feelings seem to point out the economic and political shortcomings of our day. As a student I can relate to the struggles that the majority of these people face.

One of the characters who really hit home was Mike Lefevre, the steelworker (preface 1). Funnily enough this was the first interview that I read, and it sparked my enthusiasm for the rest of the book. I found that Lefevre represented the common labor class worker. He hates his job but needs the money to support himself and his family. He seemed very selfless, just doing his job, trying to get through his life…regardless if he’s particularly happy with it. His modesty towards himself and his quite poignant criticisms of the working world gave me a great deal of respect for him:
“You can’t take pride anymore…You remember when a guy could point to a house he build, how many logs he stacked. He built it he was proud of it…It’s hard to take pride in a bridge you’re never gonna cross, in a door you’re never gonna open”(xxxi)
In this response Lefevre directly criticizes Taylorism and is expressing his hate towards the dehumanization of labor. He goes on to constantly see his profession as pointless, claiming that a machine could do what he does, ”your doing manual labor you know a machine can do”(xxxii). It is one thing to hear these theories in lecture but to hear this first hand from someone experiencing it, really emphasizes that these things are real and are happening to people in the world.

I deeply enjoyed his theory that if the working class were not so beaten down, and if they had the money and the time to pursue their interests and educate themselves that they there would be more Albert Einstein’s, more revolutions in the world. However, he quite rightly points out that, the government probably would not want that to occur. This attitude touches on a general mistrust that the public has of its government, in current and past days.

Additionally I wholeheartedly agree with his outlook on workplace authority and rules.
“He was chewing me out and I was saying, “yeah yeah yeah” he said, “what do you mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, sir.” I told him “who the hell are you, Hitler?” what is this “yes sir bullshit” I came here to work, I didn’t come here to crawl” (xxxiii)
I love how Lefevre comes across as if he is the complete embodiment of Marxist theory. The line where he says he came here to work not to crawl, captures how ,in these type of jobs, workers are definitely proletariat slaves to the bourgeoisie. Workplace chain of command have always frustrated me. Most of the time your manager is just trying to make them self feel more useful or in charge by flexing their ‘power’. When the work is so menial, (Steelwork in his case, Walmart in my case) it takes you a lot of discipline to not snap on this manager who is just as frustrated with their job as you, but tries to feel better by pissing you off. Managers act as if the job should be the world to us, or that we should care about it, when in reality, all it is, is a pay cheque. Taking pride in ones work when there is no pride to be had is difficult, and robs individuals of their self confidence. Taking pride in that sense is being proud of being used and abused by the bourgeoisie.