ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996                  TAG: 9603010102
SECTION: BOOKS                    PAGE: F-4  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY DAN FREI 

THE WAY IT WAS

COMING OF AGE: The Story of Our Century By Those Who've Lived it. By Studs Terkel. The New Press. $25.

There are 70 oral histories in "Coming of Age," and the age of 70 was the required minimum to be included in this history of American life; the ages of its participants range from 70 to 99. These are people from all around our country, speaking of their experiences and their times, providing a wonderful panorama of a changing world and changing values in the culture.

For young people wishing to learn about the way things were, this is a valuable resource. Many of the people here regret that modern America has become more impersonal, more corporate. This book reveals the extraordinary changes our country has undergone in this century and the effect of those changes on our lives for good and bad.

It is this mosaic of both despair and hope that makes this history interesting and very readable.

Dan Frei is the owner of Dan Frei Communications.

LENGTH: Short :   31 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Studs Terkel in 1981|