Curiosity Could Not Kill This Cat

In 1997, President Bill Clinton inaugurated the National Humanities Medal to recognize individuals who keep the American memory alive and infuse the future with new ideas. Among the first year's recipients was Louis Terkel. In making the award, President Clinton noted that: No one has done more to expand the American library of voices than Studs Terkel. He has quite literally defined the art of oral history, bringing the stories of ordinary people to life in his unique style, and letting the everyday experiences that deepen our history speak for themselves.2 And while not all may agree that Terkel's work is the epitome of oral history, and he himself would challenge the appellation, there is no doubt that his life and labors have significantly impacted the field.3 From his first oral history work-Division Street: America (1970)-to his forthcoming Touch and Go (2007) and the fourteen volumes in between, Terkel has conducted and summarized some 9,000 hours of oral history recordings. His narrators have included the famous-Bertrand Russell, Woody Guthrie, Janis Joplin, Michael Redgrave-and the not so famous--cops on the beat, family farmers, stay-at-home

Cognitive science · Curiosity · Latin American and Latino Studies · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social Psychology

• The Guerrilla Journalist as Oral Historian

  John de Graaf, Alan Harris Stein•The Oral History Review•2002

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