Coming of age
Subtitle: the story of our century by those who've lived it
By: Studs Terkel.
Publisher: New Press; Distributed by Norton
Published: 1995
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 468
Subjects: Older people -- United States -- Interviews; Older people -- United States -- Attitudes; Social participation -- United States -- Case studies; Self-actualization (Psychology) in old age -- United States -- Case studies
Genres: Interviews.; Case studies.
Description: Coming of Age: The Story of Our Century by Those Who've Lived It is a collective portrait of our times, woven from the voices of seventy very different people, the youngest of whom is seventy and the oldest ninety-nine. Together they give us an extraordinary panorama of American life and work throughout this century and underscore the ways in which the times have changed.

Coming of Age is also, in many ways, a sequel to Terkel's acclaimed Working (1974), for it traces the extraordinary ways our working lives have changed in the past few decades - often beyond recognition. We meet politicians and preachers, advertising men and hucksters. Here is the partner in a large law firm, suing the colleagues who have forced him out; here, too, is the carpenter, accepting as inevitable the replacement of his skilled tasks by machine.

But this is not a group of disgruntled Luddites; most accept - indeed welcome - the new technologies, yet they all deplore the degree to which human contact has declined and how traditional hopes and aspirations have been superseded by the often ruthless demands of the modern corporation.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.