HARDtalk

The historian and author Studs Terkel died on 31 October 2008 aged 96. In a long and varied career, it was his books of oral history that earned his reputation as the foremost chronicler of the lives, hopes and beliefs of ordinary Americans, tackling the subjects of race, the Great Depression and the Second World War, amongst others. In January, Stephen Sackur met Studs Terkel at his Chicago home where he spoke about America's selective memory and his hopes for the country's future.