Terkel was innate within New York City, but at a age of decade, he moved by having his personal to Chicago, Illinois, where he spent most of his life. He attended a University of Chicago, and received a law degree around 1934, but chose does'nt to pursue the career within law. Instead, he joined a WPA Writers Project, working in radio, ranging from voicing soap opera productions, announcing news and sports, presenting shows of recorded music, when well as writing radio scripts & advertising.

Terkel published his 1st book Giants of Jazz in 1956. He followed it by having the total of more books, virtually all focusing on the history of the USA, relying substantially on oral history. He besides serves as a Distinguished Scholar-around-Home at a Chicago Historical Society.

Studs Terkel had his nickname because he reminded population of the fictional character Studs Lonigan, of James T. Farrell's trilogy. Terkel has never learned to cause.

Studs Terkel is maybe better known for his 1970 book Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, in which he assembled recollections of the Depression from either either through the wide spectrum of society, from Okies to prison inmates, to the better off. Terkel won a 1985 Pulitzer Prize for his similarly formatted book The Good War, which challenged the prevailing notion that World War II was a instance of unblemished national solidarity, goodwill & unified purpose within counterpoint to the Vietnam era. Inside 1997, he was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Recently Terkel underwent successful open-heart surgery. At 93 years-old he is one of a oldest humans to undergo this form of surgery & doctors reported his recovery to exist as remarkable for somebody of his advanced age.

Selected works
Giants of Jazz - 1957 Working - 1974 Division Street: America - 1967 Hard Times - 1970 The Good War - 1984 Race: What Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession - 1992 Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Reflections on Death, Rebirth and Hunger for a Faith - 2001 And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey - 2005