Hope Dies Last: Making a Difference in an Indifferent World

Published when Studs Terkel was ninety-one years old, this astonishing oral history tackles one of the famed journalist’s most elusive Hope. Where does it come from? What are its essential qualities? How do we sustain it in the darkest of times? An alternative, more personal chronicle of the “American century,” is a testament to the indefatigable spirit that Studs has always embodied, and an inheritance for those who, by taking a stand, are making concrete the dreams of today. A former death row inmate who served nearly twenty years for a crime he did not commit discusses his never-ending fight for justice. Tom Hayden, author of , contemplates the legacy of 1960s student activism. Liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith reflects on the enduring problem of corporate malfeasance. From a doctor who teaches his young students compassion to the retired brigadier general who flew the over Hiroshima, these interviews tell us much about the power of the American dream and the force of individuals who advocate for a better world. With grace and warmth, Terkel’s subjects express their secret hopes and dreams. Taken together, this collection of interviews tells an inspiring story of optimism and persistence, told in voices that resonate with the eloquence of conviction. “The value of lies not in what it teaches readers about its narrow subject, but in the fascinating stories it reveals, and the insight it allows into the vast range of human experience.” — “Very Terkelesque—by now the man requires an adjective of his own.” —Margaret Atwood, “An American treasure.” —Cornel West

Studs Terkel is the author of many books of oral history, including Working and Will The Circle Be Unbroken? He won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good War, and the Lifetime Achievement award from the National Book Critics Circle, 2004. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is 92 years old in May 2004.