Perspective

Studs Terkel is a chronicler at heart, and more than anything he simply allows his subjects in Hard Times to talk. Clearly, when dealing with labor organization or the New Deal, his sympathies lie with union leaders and fighters against poverty. Occasionally, in Terkel's questioning, one can detect a certain note of incredulity, as when Charles Stewart Mott and Harry Norgard decry the treachery of the Flint Sit-Down Strike by citing faulty historical data. In terms of the interviewees, their perspectives are divided into three camps: those for the New Deal, those against it, and the young.

Those for the New Deal comprise the largest tent in Hard Times. They are former hoboes, politicians, labor organizers, fallen aristocrats, and civil servants. Even Alf Landon, the 1936 Republican Presidential Candidate, is a supporter.

Those against FDR's programs are also diverse to a certain extend. By and large they comprise right-leaning...