Larson reflects on `Working in the 21st Century'
Following in the footsteps of a legend can make for a tough trip, but here now is Mark Larson, putting in my hands a copy of his new book, “Working in the 21st Century: An Oral History of American Work in a Time of Social and Economic Transformation,” which is directly tied to Louis “Studs” Terkel — the author, radio host, actor, activist and Chicago symbol who has been dead since Halloween in 2008 but who remains part of the city's fabric for keeps.
It was in his 1974 book “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and
How They Feel About What They Do,” a huge bestseller, that Terkel made the grim observation that work is about “violence — to the spirit as well as to the body. It is about ulcers as well as accidents, about shouting matches as well as fistfights, about nervous breakdowns as well as kicking the dog around. It is, above all (or
beneath all), about daily humiliations. To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us.”
That feeling was fueled and formed by the words of the dozens of working people — fireman and farmer, a pair of spotwelders and a couple of cabbies, some actors, a bank teller,
stewardess, prostitute, nurse, waitress, librarian and a gravedigger. Terkel came away convinced that work, however it can batter a spirit, is also a search “for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.”
Now, into this vastly different planet, comes Larson's “Working,” born from a seed planted by Doug Seibold, the president of Agate Publishing. His firm had recently published Larson's fine and entertaining oral history of the Chicago theater world, “Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater” and he asked what might be next for Larson. Before the author could answer, Seibold said, “Have you thought about taking a stab at updating Studs Terkel's `Working'?”
Larson vividly remembers this 2020 conversation.
“I jumped at it,” he said. “What a great idea. I was honored, of course, since Studs had been such an important figure in my life.”
But then his feet were firmly back on the ground. “Holy mackerel,” he said. “This was intimidating. My first instinct, to interview some of the same people Studs talked to, or at least people in the same professions, just wasn't going to work.”