The radio personality and author Louis Terkel (born 1912) was best known for his oral histories of ordinary Americans. These anthologies of interviews show how people felt about key historical events and everyday struggles and dreams.

Initially a Chicago radio personality, in mid-career Studs Terkel acquired a national reputation as a people's historian through a series of books that relied on taped interviews to document the experiences, memories, dreams, and fears of a wide cross-section of Americans. On radio he was an entertaining and opinionated speaker, but in the collections of personal accounts he demonstrated equal ability as a skilled listener.

Louis Terkel was born on May 16, 1912, in the Bronx, New York, the third son of Russian-Jewish parents, Samuel and Anna Terkel. His father was a tailor and craftsman. In 1923 the family moved to Chicago, where his mother managed a hotel for blue-collar and skilled workers.

After graduating from...