DAN'S PAPERS, September 4, 2009 Page 47 www.danshamptons.com
Talking About Work Today, more than anything else, Labor Day signals the end of summer, the season of play. While play restores us and fuels creativity in our daily lives, as well as in the arts and sciences, it is meant to balance meaningful work, not be a substitute for it. When we mark the end of summer this Labor Day, let us remember its origin and celebrate hardworking Americans—people who today may find themselves under-
paid or without work, fighting to survive—the people Terkel calls “ordinary people with extraordinary dreams.” Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, by Studs Terkel. The New Press, 1997, 640 pages. Studs Terkel’s Working: A Graphic Adaptation, by Harvey Pekar (in charge of illustrations) and Paul Buhle (editor). The New Press, 2009, 208 pages.
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By P. J. Mills Labor Day was created as a holiday in the late 19th century when, in 1882, the Central Labor Union of New York City designated a day of recognition for workers. Congress soon followed suit, making Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894. Initially it was a day of picnics and parades that celebrated and showcased the achievements, strength, and spirit of organized labor. The quintessential book that speaks to this holiday is Studs Terkel’s Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. An unsurpassed oral history of working life in America, the book, when it was first published in 1974, was a revelation—a groundbreaking bestseller that gave voice to Americans rarely heard from: farmers and housewives; truck drivers and parking lot attendants; factory workers and labor organizers; carpenters and call girls. Terkel believes meaningful work is essential for the realization of a good life and these interviews show that workers share his belief. A journalist, radio broadcaster and oral historian blacklisted during the McCarthy era, Terkel, who died last year at the age of 96, was a “truth teller,” a man of the people with a gift for listening. In his interviews, he elicited from each and every person vivid, sometimes secret, details of their working life. There is the bookbinder who loves repairing old books and sees each one as a “life” saved; the gravedigger who is careful and reverential about his digging because he is creating the last resting place for what was once a human being; and the telephone switchboard operator who confesses to listening in on late-night calls when things are slow. There are workers who take great pride in the their competence, like the waitress who boasts of being able to set a plate down without it making a sound, or the supermarket cashier who knows the price of everything by heart and choreographs each move she makes. There are also the people for whom work is simply a means to an end, a way to feed, shelter, and clothe themselves and their families. One of these is the welder whose work life is ruled by monotony as he stands in the same spot, pushing the same button over and over and over again—eight hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year. There is a jolt of electricity, a visceral power, in each of the interviews as people describe the accomplishments and difficulties of their working lives, their ways of coping, their dreams, and their aspirations. What is underscored in this impressive and valuable document is just how difficult it is to find meaning in the modern world of work. This emotional truth and existential dilemma of work remains vitally relevant today, as we see in the recent collaborative work by historian Paul Buhle and cartoonist Harvey Pekar: Studs Terkel’s Working: A Graphic Adaptation. Published in May of 2009, this book is a careful abridgment and illustration of Working that adds visual impact to the emotional force of the workers’ stories.
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