Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression

Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (original: 1970/ latest edition: 2005) is a telling of the oral history of the Great Depression written by Studs Terkel. It is a firsthand account of people of varying socio-economic status who lived in the United States during the Great Depression.

The first edition of the book was published in 1970. The 1986 print included a new introduction by Terkel. The latest edition was published in 2005.

Chapters

 * Foreword, January–February 1986
 * A Personal Memoir (and parenthetical comment)

Book One

 * The March
 * The Song
 * Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
 * Hard Travelin’
 * The Big Money
 * Man and Boy
 * God Bless’ the Child
 * Bonnie Laboring Boy
 * Three Strikes

Book Two

 * Old Families
 * Member of the Chorus
 * High Life
 * At the Clinic
 * Sixteen Ton
 * The Farmer is the Man
 * Editor and Publisher

Book Three

 * Concerning the New Deal
 * An Unreconstructed Populist
 * Peroration (Includes interview with Hamilton Fish III)
 * Scarlet Banners and Novenas
 * The Doctor, Huey, and Mr. Smith
 * The Circuit Rider
 * The Gentleman from Kansas (Interview with Alf Landon)
 * A View of the Woods
 * Campus Life

Book Four

 * Merely Passing Through
 * Three O’Clock in the Morning
 * A Cable

Book Five

 * The Fine and Lively Arts
 * Public Servant – The City
 * Evictions, Arrests, and Other Running Sores
 * Honor and Humiliation
 * Strive and Succeed

Epilogue

 * The Raft
 * A Touch of Rue

Literary significance and reception
Hard Times is known for providing an equal representation of experiences across a broad spectrum of socio-economic status, interviewing famous and influential people as well as others from a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. It has been called "A true classic! Exceptional oral history of a wide strata of Americans caught up in the 'hard times' of the Great Depression."