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Chicago
In the tradition of E. B. White s bestselling Here Is New York, Chicago a tribute to the Second City part history, part memoir, and 100% Studs Terkel infused with anecdotes, memories, and reflections that celebrate the great city.
Chicago was home to the country s first skyscraper (a ten-story building built in 1884) and marks the start of the famed Route 66. It is also the birthplace of the remote control (Zenith), the car radio (Motorola) and the first major American city to elect a woman (Jane Byrne) and then an African American man (Harold Washington) as mayor. Its literary and journalistic history is just as dazzling, and includes Nelson Algren, Mike Royko and Sara Paretsky. From Al Capone to the street riots during the Democratic National Convention in 1968, Chicago, in the words of Terkel himself, has as they used to whisper of the town s fast woman a reputation.
Chicago was of course also home to the Pulitzer Prize winning oral historian Studs Terkel, who moved to Chicago in 1922 as an eight-year-old and who would make it his home until his death in 2008 at the age of 96. This book is a splendid evocation of Studs hometown in all its glory and all its imperfection. "
Chicago was home to the country s first skyscraper (a ten-story building built in 1884) and marks the start of the famed Route 66. It is also the birthplace of the remote control (Zenith), the car radio (Motorola) and the first major American city to elect a woman (Jane Byrne) and then an African American man (Harold Washington) as mayor. Its literary and journalistic history is just as dazzling, and includes Nelson Algren, Mike Royko and Sara Paretsky. From Al Capone to the street riots during the Democratic National Convention in 1968, Chicago, in the words of Terkel himself, has as they used to whisper of the town s fast woman a reputation.
Chicago was of course also home to the Pulitzer Prize winning oral historian Studs Terkel, who moved to Chicago in 1922 as an eight-year-old and who would make it his home until his death in 2008 at the age of 96. This book is a splendid evocation of Studs hometown in all its glory and all its imperfection. "
145 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1986
59 people are currently reading
486 people want to read
About the author
Studs Terkel
76 books416 followersLouis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for "The Good War", and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.
Terkel was acclaimed for his efforts to preserve American oral history. His 1985 book "The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two", which detailed ordinary peoples' accounts of the country's involvement in World War II, won the Pulitzer Prize. For "Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression", Terkel assembled recollections of the Great Depression that spanned the socioeconomic spectrum, from Okies, through prison inmates, to the wealthy. His 1974 book, "Working" also was highly acclaimed. In 1995, he received the Chicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Journalism and Communications. In 1997, Terkel was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Two years later, he received the George Polk Career Award in 1999.
Terkel was acclaimed for his efforts to preserve American oral history. His 1985 book "The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two", which detailed ordinary peoples' accounts of the country's involvement in World War II, won the Pulitzer Prize. For "Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression", Terkel assembled recollections of the Great Depression that spanned the socioeconomic spectrum, from Okies, through prison inmates, to the wealthy. His 1974 book, "Working" also was highly acclaimed. In 1995, he received the Chicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Journalism and Communications. In 1997, Terkel was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Two years later, he received the George Polk Career Award in 1999.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
August 18, 2024
"For more than twenty years, he had lived in a frame house on a block that was to become, “almost overnight,” the heart of an artsy-craftsy area. “All of a sudden, we started getting this other type: professional people, lawyers, young big shots in advertising, banking, stock-market sharpshooters, artists. You see, we had a period from the lowest to the highest. But the lowest are being priced out.” It had been one of the city’s old German—with a touch of Bohemian—neighborhoods. Some of the old-timers had been in the same houses for three, four generations. “I used to know just about everybody around here. Now . . .” He waves his hand, helplessly. “Chicago was a big city before and yet it was pretty much like a small town. Neighborhood after neighborhood were like small towns themselves. People integrated, relatives visited, you talked more, you got to know each other. Know what I mean? You miss this.” Twelve years later, in 1979, I ran into him again. He had moved to another part of the city, a blue-collar community of one- and two-family dwellings."
Written in the mid-1980s, Studs Terkel’s Chicago can be considered a love poem to this city in blank verse.
Terkel always identified with “the underclass.” Even in his success, he was conscious of how things stood: "The neighborhood where I live suits me fine. It has halfway houses, nursing homes, and all the United Nations’ anonymous representatives, as well as Appalachians, Ozarkians, and Native Americans. And bag ladies, of course. Unfortunately, poverty is its lot, though there is spirit enough for fifty neighborhoods. (I live on a have street in a society of havenots. It is no more than a hundred yards away from the action, yet it is a planet distant.) At times, the dispiritedness of dreadful circumstance overwhelms, despite the efforts of ONE. It appears to crush. Yet there is a throb of life here, hardly found elsewhere. It’s Uptown, of course."
Chicago has always been a city evolving and there is no better observer to share with us lay people what that means. Studs Terkel has always written about things that affect the common man. For example his books on “Working” and “Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression.” In this book he takes us on a wild trip with his stream of consciousness (and it would be rated as at least a 4 for whitewater). You would likely get the same rendition if you and he were sitting in some Division Street bar having a shot and a beer. Here is an example:
"The work of Picasso, another artist, appears to be more permanent. At the Civic Center Plaza, on that delightful spring day, the master’s gift to Chicago is unveiled. It’s crowded: old people on benches, grabbing a piece of the sun; file clerks brown-bagging their lunch; school kids; neighborhood folk in town to see what the excitement’s all about; and more city workers than usual. It had been suggested by The Man on Five that their presence would be appreciated. And a few street people. There have been speeches by Maredaley and by the Skid-more architect who persuaded the master to give it to us, and a poem read by Gwendolyn Brooks. As the sheet is tugged off, we see it. There is no gasp from the assemblage, though a slight bewilderment is in the air. A murmur of one sort or another is heard. Is it a bird? A woman? Victory? Which is the front and which is the back? I dunno; ya can’t prove it by me.” "She approaches him. Has she smelled his breath? One hundred proof. “Vass you ever in the Louvre?” “What is it?” “The best art museum in the vorld.” His civic pride is challenged. “We got one here on Michigan. The one with the lions. Don’t tell me about art.” • • • The Chicago Art Institute. Where else can you spend Sunday in the park with George? Seurat, hurrah. La Grande Jatte has been seen by more visitors than any other. Diffident, shy, they who have never been in an art museum in their lives approach the guard: Where’s the one with the dots?" And he is off on another segue discussing Edward Hopper’s The Nighthawks and then moving on to relating it to his experiences in a Chicago “all-night beanery.”
"(Our city is streetwise and alley-hip of the casually familiar. Thus the Standard Oil Building and the John Hancock are, with tavern gaminess, referred to as Big Stan and Big John. Sears is simply that; never mind Roebuck. Ours is a one-syllable town. Its character has been molded by the muscle rather than the word.) Our double-vision, double-standard, double-value, and double-cross have been patent ever since—at least, ever since the earliest of our city fathers took the Pottawattomies for all they had. Poetically, these dispossessed natives dubbed this piece of turf Chikagou. Some say it is Indian lingo for “City of the Wild Onion”; some say it really means “City of the Big Smell.” “Big” is certainly the operative word around these parts."
Terkel quotes "Nelson Algren’s classic Chicago: City on the Make is the late poet’s single-hearted vision of his town’s doubleness. “Chicago . . . forever keeps two faces, one for winners and one for losers; one for hustlers and one for squares. . . . One face for Go-Getters and one for Go-Get-It-Yourselfers. One for poets and one for promoters. . . . One for early risers, one for evening hiders.”"
Here are some additional quotations:
"“Cash had a language all of its own. One night I didn’t have my pistol with me, and a lady of the evening pointed out a large score to me. A squad car came by, which I was familiar with. I knew all the officers. I borrowed one of their pistols and took the score. Then I had to strip and be searched by the policemen, keeping honest in the end as we divided the score.”"
"“There’s something you gotta understand about Irish Catholics in Chicago. Until recently, being a policeman was a wonderful thing. ’Cause he had a steady job and he knew he was gonna get a pension and they seemed to think it was better than being a truck driver. “Someone had to be police, you know? They sacrificed anything. They just knew that So-and-so in the family would be. It was another step out of the mud."
Hard to tell, sometimes, whether we are heading his voice or on of his characters
"This area is becoming something worthwhile. Of course, some of the parents are unhappy about it, but they’ll get over it."
3.5
Written in the mid-1980s, Studs Terkel’s Chicago can be considered a love poem to this city in blank verse.
Terkel always identified with “the underclass.” Even in his success, he was conscious of how things stood: "The neighborhood where I live suits me fine. It has halfway houses, nursing homes, and all the United Nations’ anonymous representatives, as well as Appalachians, Ozarkians, and Native Americans. And bag ladies, of course. Unfortunately, poverty is its lot, though there is spirit enough for fifty neighborhoods. (I live on a have street in a society of havenots. It is no more than a hundred yards away from the action, yet it is a planet distant.) At times, the dispiritedness of dreadful circumstance overwhelms, despite the efforts of ONE. It appears to crush. Yet there is a throb of life here, hardly found elsewhere. It’s Uptown, of course."
Chicago has always been a city evolving and there is no better observer to share with us lay people what that means. Studs Terkel has always written about things that affect the common man. For example his books on “Working” and “Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression.” In this book he takes us on a wild trip with his stream of consciousness (and it would be rated as at least a 4 for whitewater). You would likely get the same rendition if you and he were sitting in some Division Street bar having a shot and a beer. Here is an example:
"The work of Picasso, another artist, appears to be more permanent. At the Civic Center Plaza, on that delightful spring day, the master’s gift to Chicago is unveiled. It’s crowded: old people on benches, grabbing a piece of the sun; file clerks brown-bagging their lunch; school kids; neighborhood folk in town to see what the excitement’s all about; and more city workers than usual. It had been suggested by The Man on Five that their presence would be appreciated. And a few street people. There have been speeches by Maredaley and by the Skid-more architect who persuaded the master to give it to us, and a poem read by Gwendolyn Brooks. As the sheet is tugged off, we see it. There is no gasp from the assemblage, though a slight bewilderment is in the air. A murmur of one sort or another is heard. Is it a bird? A woman? Victory? Which is the front and which is the back? I dunno; ya can’t prove it by me.” "She approaches him. Has she smelled his breath? One hundred proof. “Vass you ever in the Louvre?” “What is it?” “The best art museum in the vorld.” His civic pride is challenged. “We got one here on Michigan. The one with the lions. Don’t tell me about art.” • • • The Chicago Art Institute. Where else can you spend Sunday in the park with George? Seurat, hurrah. La Grande Jatte has been seen by more visitors than any other. Diffident, shy, they who have never been in an art museum in their lives approach the guard: Where’s the one with the dots?" And he is off on another segue discussing Edward Hopper’s The Nighthawks and then moving on to relating it to his experiences in a Chicago “all-night beanery.”
"(Our city is streetwise and alley-hip of the casually familiar. Thus the Standard Oil Building and the John Hancock are, with tavern gaminess, referred to as Big Stan and Big John. Sears is simply that; never mind Roebuck. Ours is a one-syllable town. Its character has been molded by the muscle rather than the word.) Our double-vision, double-standard, double-value, and double-cross have been patent ever since—at least, ever since the earliest of our city fathers took the Pottawattomies for all they had. Poetically, these dispossessed natives dubbed this piece of turf Chikagou. Some say it is Indian lingo for “City of the Wild Onion”; some say it really means “City of the Big Smell.” “Big” is certainly the operative word around these parts."
Terkel quotes "Nelson Algren’s classic Chicago: City on the Make is the late poet’s single-hearted vision of his town’s doubleness. “Chicago . . . forever keeps two faces, one for winners and one for losers; one for hustlers and one for squares. . . . One face for Go-Getters and one for Go-Get-It-Yourselfers. One for poets and one for promoters. . . . One for early risers, one for evening hiders.”"
Here are some additional quotations:
"“Cash had a language all of its own. One night I didn’t have my pistol with me, and a lady of the evening pointed out a large score to me. A squad car came by, which I was familiar with. I knew all the officers. I borrowed one of their pistols and took the score. Then I had to strip and be searched by the policemen, keeping honest in the end as we divided the score.”"
"“There’s something you gotta understand about Irish Catholics in Chicago. Until recently, being a policeman was a wonderful thing. ’Cause he had a steady job and he knew he was gonna get a pension and they seemed to think it was better than being a truck driver. “Someone had to be police, you know? They sacrificed anything. They just knew that So-and-so in the family would be. It was another step out of the mud."
Hard to tell, sometimes, whether we are heading his voice or on of his characters
"This area is becoming something worthwhile. Of course, some of the parents are unhappy about it, but they’ll get over it."
3.5
February 12, 2016
Really was just an essay. So it made a fairly short book. Thoroughly enjoyable. Thoroughly Studs. Great follow-up to Nelson Algren's Chicago, City on the Make, which I found one day many years ago on father's shelf. It wasn't there when we cleaned the house out though. I'm going to have to break down and buy a new copy. Also included is a foreword to the re-issued City on the Make.
This is a book for Chicagoans. West Siders, South Siders, even North Siders, and even those of us from the 'burbs. I think this one is a keeper. Something to dip into on those days when one feels a little bit homesick.
It has great photographs, too. Reminded me so fondly of trips to the Art Institute, Wrigley Field. He wasn't a Sox fan so he didn't go much to Commiskey Park. Some mentions regarding the old Stadium and how they had incorporated the bricks from Libby Prison (where one of my great-grandfathers spent some time). But there is a definite Janus about Chicago with two faces - one is always exposed to the Lake and the other is probably toward Halsted.
Studs came to town as a youngster and, although it struck him strange at first, quickly adapted to our sometimes unique ways. I think he always considered it a "raffish" town. Whether that was from this book or a WTTW show, I'm not sure. This is his paean to Chicago.
Highly recommended to Chicagoans who have moved away. Always home to me.
This is a book for Chicagoans. West Siders, South Siders, even North Siders, and even those of us from the 'burbs. I think this one is a keeper. Something to dip into on those days when one feels a little bit homesick.
It has great photographs, too. Reminded me so fondly of trips to the Art Institute, Wrigley Field. He wasn't a Sox fan so he didn't go much to Commiskey Park. Some mentions regarding the old Stadium and how they had incorporated the bricks from Libby Prison (where one of my great-grandfathers spent some time). But there is a definite Janus about Chicago with two faces - one is always exposed to the Lake and the other is probably toward Halsted.
Studs came to town as a youngster and, although it struck him strange at first, quickly adapted to our sometimes unique ways. I think he always considered it a "raffish" town. Whether that was from this book or a WTTW show, I'm not sure. This is his paean to Chicago.
Highly recommended to Chicagoans who have moved away. Always home to me.
July 10, 2014
This is the least good of Studs’ books I've read. Fellow Goodreadsers’ reviews celebrate this book, noting Studs’ importance to Chicago, his love of Chicago, and the uncharacteristic speaking as himself, rather than as an interviewer of others. Studs’ union with his city is undeniably part of the joy of reading him. But one needn’t read this book to get that. Nor does one need to read this book to hear Studs’ own voice—both the better Touch and Go and the even better Talking to Myself allow us that pleasure. Disappointingly, events and stories briefly referenced or recounted here appear in longer and better-told segments in these latter two books.
The photographs of our city interspersed throughout do add a dimension to Studs’ ode to Chicago. Strikingly, these photographs don’t so much reveal Chicago, but a previous Chicago, a Chicago of Studs’ era. Check out the Appalachian toughs in Studs’ neighborhood of Uptown on page 62 and the pair of butchers on page 117. These photographs, and the others they are among are important for the same reason Studs’ famous books, Working and Division Street, are--they vividly capture life of the working class city in a particular moment in time.
The photographs of our city interspersed throughout do add a dimension to Studs’ ode to Chicago. Strikingly, these photographs don’t so much reveal Chicago, but a previous Chicago, a Chicago of Studs’ era. Check out the Appalachian toughs in Studs’ neighborhood of Uptown on page 62 and the pair of butchers on page 117. These photographs, and the others they are among are important for the same reason Studs’ famous books, Working and Division Street, are--they vividly capture life of the working class city in a particular moment in time.
February 24, 2022
I grew up listening to Studs on WFMT, 'Chicago's fine arts station', remembering his interviews with personages of interest such as Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs all the way back to the sixties. I also read 'Division Street' when Dad picked it up, the first of many Terkel books he acquired, many of them signed. If you've heard Studs, and you can by going to the Terkel archives, this book, in the same familiar voice, is an impressionistic take on the city, its people and its history, accompanied by many illustrative photographs. It inspired me to go back to the 1969 film he discusses, 'Medium Cool', a movie featuring the Democratic Convention here in 1968, a film I haven't thought of much since seeing it upon its release back then.
February 5, 2021
I started reading this and realized I didn't know that much about the history of Chicago. So, I ended up with two other books about Chicago and learned a lot. Then when I went back to this small book it made more sense. The author makes references to so much and moves between years freely, talking about everything that happened in the history of Chicago. He also references Chicago politics and US politics. It is a bit dated. But, overall he describes the important people in the life of the city and gives an accurate overall impression of the character and feeling of the city. It is worth the read.
January 7, 2024
I really wanted to like this book, but it was really poorly organized
July 17, 2024
A love letter to the Chicago as it was and had been, this is a fine, tender bit of writing. Studs could do tender with the best of them, that's for sure.
February 24, 2016
First try at Turkel
I gave this book s try since I never read Studs and moved to Chicago in Uptown no less. I'll try another Studs book before I write him off, but I wasn't very impressed. I found his style annoying and he made too many assumptions on what people know. In my opinion, Chicago deserves a better love story than this
I gave this book s try since I never read Studs and moved to Chicago in Uptown no less. I'll try another Studs book before I write him off, but I wasn't very impressed. I found his style annoying and he made too many assumptions on what people know. In my opinion, Chicago deserves a better love story than this
December 31, 2016
This is a long sort of stream of consciousness essay written in the 1980's. If you are not from Chicago or at least have some connection you may not appreciate it. I for one do have some connection so it triggered some memories and "Oh, yeahs" for me. The 1967 big snow and maredaly for example. Being a fan of Studs helps too. What a guy. "Take it easy. But take it."
August 1, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyed this book —I picked it up at The Chicago Institute of Art. I was visiting and wanted to read about the city.
Not so much factual, but an elegy to the author’s adopted city, the book seemed like poetry or a creative essay.
As a result of Mr. Terkel’s literary skills, I pictured the Chicago of the mid to late 19th centuries and the 20th century. Studs Terkel described Chicago as two-faced—corrupt and violent and friendly and community oriented. He introduced residents who represented these and other dualities to show the complexity of the city and its inhabitants.
Chicago began as a small village, originally settled by the Native Americans. The Chicago Fire destroyed much of the original city, consisting of wooden buildings and boardwalks. The first skyscraper was built in and from then on, Chicago became well known for its architecture. Billy Byrne and Frank Lloyd Wright were among the well known architects. Due to its location on a river and huge lake, the city flourished as a business and manufacturing center. Its political history has been colorful, to say the least.
Chicago was continuously chosen as a site for large meetings, political conventions, and demonstrations. Due to this there have been memorable confrontations between protesters and law enforcement, often not a pretty sight.
The book is easy to read and short. I recommend it to visitors and residents. Obviously, Studs Terkel was a classic American writer, right there among the literary giants.
Not so much factual, but an elegy to the author’s adopted city, the book seemed like poetry or a creative essay.
As a result of Mr. Terkel’s literary skills, I pictured the Chicago of the mid to late 19th centuries and the 20th century. Studs Terkel described Chicago as two-faced—corrupt and violent and friendly and community oriented. He introduced residents who represented these and other dualities to show the complexity of the city and its inhabitants.
Chicago began as a small village, originally settled by the Native Americans. The Chicago Fire destroyed much of the original city, consisting of wooden buildings and boardwalks. The first skyscraper was built in and from then on, Chicago became well known for its architecture. Billy Byrne and Frank Lloyd Wright were among the well known architects. Due to its location on a river and huge lake, the city flourished as a business and manufacturing center. Its political history has been colorful, to say the least.
Chicago was continuously chosen as a site for large meetings, political conventions, and demonstrations. Due to this there have been memorable confrontations between protesters and law enforcement, often not a pretty sight.
The book is easy to read and short. I recommend it to visitors and residents. Obviously, Studs Terkel was a classic American writer, right there among the literary giants.
July 28, 2013
An ode to his beloved city, faults & all. If you love Chicago, you must know of Studs, who takes you in as an old friend & shares stories (his own & other folks') of the city, all the while exposing our humanity in the most profound ways.
March 20, 2011
Studs Terkel is yet another reason why my city (Chicago) is better than yours. I thought it was a great oral history of the finest city in the Union, although it did read as a little dated.
February 4, 2024
A beautiful tribute to all the joy and squalor of the city of big shoulders.
June 19, 2020
This was a pretty fascinating, stream of conscious read about Studs' love affair with Chicago, warts and all. It's highly anecdotal and specific, but I still thoroughly enjoyed his descriptions of a city that still sound true in many ways today. I'm not sure how much I would have gotten out of it without a first hand knowledge of Chicago the past few years.
My favorite passage was his description of the great snow storm that united the city towards the end of the book - everyone was happy and friendly and helpful to each other. I enjoyed Studs' writing style in many ways and it intrigues me, but I'm not entirely sold on it; I'd like to read a few of his other works, and maybe listen to some of his old radio shows. I also want to read Nelson Algren's Chicago City on the Make, which Studs says his book is basically an epilogue to.
My favorite passage was his description of the great snow storm that united the city towards the end of the book - everyone was happy and friendly and helpful to each other. I enjoyed Studs' writing style in many ways and it intrigues me, but I'm not entirely sold on it; I'd like to read a few of his other works, and maybe listen to some of his old radio shows. I also want to read Nelson Algren's Chicago City on the Make, which Studs says his book is basically an epilogue to.
November 22, 2025
"As for the boy who stepped off the day coach at the La Salle Street depot on that August day, 1920, he has come to know, ever so slightly, the nature of the Roman god who, fable tells us, guards the gates of heaven. He knows, too, that the spirit of this god hovers over Chicago. He further knows that Janus, two-headed, has, of course, two forked tongues. So the boy, in the ultimate, knows that, despite the song, he'll not find Eden here. Here, in Chicago, this cock-eyed wonder of a town, he is--and all of us are--twice blessed and twice deceived. And he'll settle for that."
A breezy, often quite funny, and yet poignant reflection on this town, what it was and what it had been and what it was coming to be.
A breezy, often quite funny, and yet poignant reflection on this town, what it was and what it had been and what it was coming to be.
June 4, 2022
Terkel's writing is a lucid testimony - oral history at its core - of a city without mythologizing it. Romanticism is present, sure, but it organically arises from the people of Chicago.
Terkel doesn't get too deep into his politics (beyond the broad inclusions of a few notable figures and events), but his care and focus for the community bleeds through the pages. The root of one's ideology is based in the interactions with their environment. And as Chicago shows, Terkel always strove to capture the voice of the people.
Terkel doesn't get too deep into his politics (beyond the broad inclusions of a few notable figures and events), but his care and focus for the community bleeds through the pages. The root of one's ideology is based in the interactions with their environment. And as Chicago shows, Terkel always strove to capture the voice of the people.
March 17, 2020
Accounts of history become more enjoyable when they turn into a time capsule themselves, maybe even more so the older you get and thus can relate to the language and energy of the time of the capsule. I know, it's been a long week.
This snapshot of the city in 1980 or so came to me just as I started seriously abandoning city life for the suburbs. And for all its grit and glory, I still left the book able to let it all go. Who am I? You'd think these books would have the answer.
This snapshot of the city in 1980 or so came to me just as I started seriously abandoning city life for the suburbs. And for all its grit and glory, I still left the book able to let it all go. Who am I? You'd think these books would have the answer.
September 25, 2020
This book is a long extended essay (short book--only 121 pages) about Studs Terkel's connections to Chicago. While I have enjoyed so many of Studs Terkel's oral histories over the years, I didn't enjoy this book. It is written will with many good black and white pictures included in the book, but I found that I could not remember anything memorable from the book that would stay with me; whereas, I always found something that would stay with me from his oral histories.
March 10, 2025
Enjoyable, quick-paced tour through many slices of life in Chicago. I now understand why Marshall Berman once wrote an essay about Studs Terkel: Terkel perfectly captures the ever-changing thrills and instability of modern urban life.
The flip side is that it was really hard to latch onto any particular themes or ideas in this book, and I’m not sure if I really came away with any new perspectives.
The flip side is that it was really hard to latch onto any particular themes or ideas in this book, and I’m not sure if I really came away with any new perspectives.
August 22, 2025
Part history, part memoir, part love letter to Studs Terkel’s hometown of Chicago. I spent a week in Chicago this summer and fell in love. I came home wanting to read all about the city I want to return to as soon as possible. I’m glad I picked this one up. I mean it’s Studs Terkel, if you want to read about the windy city, go to the source.
December 19, 2017
I read this to learn more about Chicago, and mostly what I learned is that Studs Terkel really loved Chicago. His highbrow/lowbrow style and the cast of characters he knew makes it engaging.
December 22, 2018
Photos are priceless, book leaves you with more questions (about the hundreds of references to events, books, people...) than answers, Studs is my boyfriend, etc
January 21, 2020
eden in the state of ele noy
September 1, 2023
Highly emotional memoir style text. Pro-Chicago propaganda. Outdated at times, but offers a lot to reflect on. Loved it.
December 30, 2024
Read the Algren but don’t skip this one, either. “He is, and all of us are, twice blessed and twice deceived.”
March 5, 2017
Chicago, by Studs Terkel, 1986. Probably not Studs’ best book (I really liked Talking to Myself), but still worth reading. It includes his foreword to the last edition of Nelson Algren’s Chicago: City on the Make. His main point is the two sides of Chicago, its greatness, and its corruption/depravity/injustice. A lot of great photographs from all over the city.
August 30, 2016
Studs Terkel's Chicago is not among the must-read works of the late radio host, historian and unacknowledged mayor of the city. The book has an interesting link to a significant work in the city's literary history, though that alone still might not make it worth reading. Chicago is for the dedicated fan of Studs.
Terkel calls his work a "long epilogue" for another work. In 1951, Nelson Algren, Chicago's street corner poet of the dispossessed, published what is sometimes called a "prose-poem" entitled Chicago: City on the Make. That fascinating prose work was not an essay, though it has essay-like elements. It was meant to evoke emotions, some of them raw and harsh, others loving and kind, about changing Chicago. Terkel wrote the forward for the last edition.
In Chicago, Terkel covers much of the same ground he does in his other works. Some of the memories of the Wells-Grand Hotel, the rooming house his parents ran, are rich because of the people he met there during the Depression. Often they were speakers at Bughouse Square, the nickname for Washington Square Park, perhaps the most significant free-speech center in the nation's history and one-time rival of Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park.
Though Terkel covers a lot of the same ground in Chicago, he digs up some interesting social history. For example, he mentions the now largely forgotten bout between boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmeling on the South Side of the city. Louis, who was African American, knocked out his white opponent. Terkel, who had witnessed the fight but had apparently forgotten its exact year before writing this work, asked a black man what year it had happened:
"He broke into a million-dollar smile: 'Nineteen thirty-eight.' Ask any black person of a certain age that question and you can hardly miss." That kind of ethnic pride, which is worth remembering, is a forgotten facet of the Chicago's history.
Terkel, who was a proud yet thoughtful political liberal, shows his characteristic ability to make his readers think in this work. In a section about the impoverished Cabrini-Green public housing project on Chicago's Near Northwest Side, he turns Lord Acton's famous proverb--Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely--on its head. For Terkel, the idea should have been powerlessness corrupts and absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely. It's an idea worth thinking about and not just in preparation for a Bughouse Square debate.
Terkel calls his work a "long epilogue" for another work. In 1951, Nelson Algren, Chicago's street corner poet of the dispossessed, published what is sometimes called a "prose-poem" entitled Chicago: City on the Make. That fascinating prose work was not an essay, though it has essay-like elements. It was meant to evoke emotions, some of them raw and harsh, others loving and kind, about changing Chicago. Terkel wrote the forward for the last edition.
In Chicago, Terkel covers much of the same ground he does in his other works. Some of the memories of the Wells-Grand Hotel, the rooming house his parents ran, are rich because of the people he met there during the Depression. Often they were speakers at Bughouse Square, the nickname for Washington Square Park, perhaps the most significant free-speech center in the nation's history and one-time rival of Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park.
Though Terkel covers a lot of the same ground in Chicago, he digs up some interesting social history. For example, he mentions the now largely forgotten bout between boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmeling on the South Side of the city. Louis, who was African American, knocked out his white opponent. Terkel, who had witnessed the fight but had apparently forgotten its exact year before writing this work, asked a black man what year it had happened:
"He broke into a million-dollar smile: 'Nineteen thirty-eight.' Ask any black person of a certain age that question and you can hardly miss." That kind of ethnic pride, which is worth remembering, is a forgotten facet of the Chicago's history.
Terkel, who was a proud yet thoughtful political liberal, shows his characteristic ability to make his readers think in this work. In a section about the impoverished Cabrini-Green public housing project on Chicago's Near Northwest Side, he turns Lord Acton's famous proverb--Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely--on its head. For Terkel, the idea should have been powerlessness corrupts and absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely. It's an idea worth thinking about and not just in preparation for a Bughouse Square debate.
August 6, 2013
Studs Terkel's Chicago is a rambling prose poem about his city, and the changes, in a thousand vignettes; his own and others; reeling from flashback to then-current events and back. That's what the book is about, sure, but when literature is good, as this is, it captures something else. In the transitions, in the sound of the language chosen, in the herky-jerky structure from past to future and from one face of this two-faced city between the go-getters and the go-get-it-yourselfers, as Terkel puts it. He captures a lot of background, drops a lot of names, but the feel, the spirit of the Windy City; he catches that too.
That's what I was looking for when I picked this book up some years ago in a used book store in Denver. Not the history of Chicago, not exactly, but who this city was, and who it has become.
That's what I was looking for when I picked this book up some years ago in a used book store in Denver. Not the history of Chicago, not exactly, but who this city was, and who it has become.
September 28, 2014
This book is Stud Terkel's tribute to Algren's City on the Make. Terkel tells a meandering series of stories that form a literary Chicago collage. As a Chicago resident it is exciting to follow through the thousands of references he makes to names and locations that are part of Chicago's fabric. There is even a 1 paragraph reference to UNO, my employer.
This book is now 30 years old. Chicago is due or another great literary treatment to continue the lineage of Carl Sandburg, Nelson Algren, and Studs Terkel.
This book is now 30 years old. Chicago is due or another great literary treatment to continue the lineage of Carl Sandburg, Nelson Algren, and Studs Terkel.
March 26, 2014
self-described by studs as an epilogue to algren's Chicago: City on the Make, this prose poem (artfully paired with b&w photos of the city) is pretty extraordinary in its own right. unlike most of his other books, the dominant voice providing the oral history is studs' - a voice that is so clearly his own: wonderful & unique (and which i could read all d*mn day).
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