I chose to read about Rex Winship, a trader. I read this because I wanted to know exactly what a trader does, and what it traded. Winship explained what trading was, but he also explained something far more interesting to me. He explained the cruel truth of business and corporations. In the corporate world, it’s a free for all; everyone for themselves, because everyone is trying to make more money; but that money has to come from somewhere. Winship summarized the corporate world with this quote, “Why should you make a profit? Without loss, no one can win. Unless you have losers, you cannot have winners” (Terkel 404). Someone has to lose money in order for someone else to make money. In order some someone to benefit, someone else has to suffer. This made me think about the wedge in society; it has existed in America for decades. The core of capitalism is greed, and as long as greed exists, the wedge is society will always exist.

I also read about a Vietnam War veteran named Larry Heinemann. I chose this story because I wanted to see an in depth look at the Vietnam War from a soldier’s perspective. Heinemann was drafted in 1966 and fought in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. When he returned home, he was a different person. Heinemann recalls being angrier and feeling more isolated from others. He was going through symptoms of delayed stress. Heinemann hated the war when it started and hasn’t stopped hating it. He feels that the war damaged him psychologically. He saw parades honoring the Vietnam War veterans, and he was disgusted, “I don’t think the country learned anything from the war. […] They wanted so hard for it to be all right. It’s not. It’s going to be an evil thing in our lives and nothing’s gonna change it” (Terkel 420). Today the US continues to get involved in foreign affairs, and send in American troops to fight someone else’s war. Has America learned anything from the Vietnam War?    

This section of the Studs Terkel Reader was centered on the working class of America in the 1970’s. Many people didn’t like what the US had turned into. After getting involved in a nine year war in Vietnam, and the Watergate scandal, many Americans began to question their lives. “In the thirties (as rememberers of ‘Hard Times’ remembered), not very many questioned their lot. Those rebels who found flaws in our society were few in number. This time around, ‘the system stinks’ was a phrase almost as recurrent as ‘more or less” (Terkel 315). Capital goods and automated technology had taken the jobs of many assembly line workers. The US population was growing, but jobs were becoming fewer in number. Work was necessary for survival; everyone had to find a job no matter how inferior it was. Dolores Dante took a job as a waitress. The men she served tried to make her job as demeaning as possible. “You’re great, how come you’re just a waitress?” (Terkel 331). Dante needed a way to make quick money, and jobs behind a desk were hard to come by. Other people took up jobs as Barbers or Cab drivers; both of which you had to agree with the customer on everything, even if they were insulting you. The first priority was to maintain good business, and that meant always agreeing with the customer. Times had changed for America; some people were doing better than others. After 70 years, the wedge in society still remained.   

I read about Tom Kearney, a police officer in the 1960’s. He described what it was like seeing all the protests for civil rights or ending the war in Vietnam. Kearney noticed that all these protests were supported by the younger generation. In the late 1960’s, college campus’s constantly protested the Vietnam War. The younger generation wanted change, but the older generation didn’t want change. “They trade views. I find they seldom argue in a – in disagreement. They give and take, back and forth, but they don’t stand on their points. They want to know the other person. They seem to accept other people more easily than we did” (Terkel 270). Kearney admired the capacity of younger generation to adapt to the changing world; they were more willing to accept others than the older generation was. The older generation was too stubborn to accept change. These two groups worked against each other over the years, but change finally came.

            I also read about Dennis Hart, a cabbie in the 1960’s. Unlike others, he treated blacks as equals, and didn’t despise the communists; rather than wanting to kill the, he wanted to convert them to capitalism. He was a man who believed there were two sides to every story. “The average individual, if he saw a communist on the street, he would pick up a stone and throw it at him. A John Birch member would identify him and he might try to bring him over to capitalism. Communists only know what they’re taught” (Terkel 242). Hart sympathizes with both sides of an argument, he will hear both sides of the story and choose which side he agrees with. Hart chose to support the civil right movement because he believed that this endless turmoil between the whites and blacks would destabilize the US; which is exactly what the communists want. The US would have to unify itself under democracy before it unifies the world under democracy.   

I read a story about Peggy Terry, a woman who worked in the war production factories during WWII. To her, it was a miracle that she even had a job to provide for her family. However I found the personal story of E. B. (Sledgehammer) Sledge much more interesting. Sledge was a marine in the Pacific. He described the horrors of fighting the Japanese and what had to be done to survive in the Pacific. The Japanese fought savagely and inhumanely. This caused a lot of the Marines to abandon their humanity in order to fight the Japanese. “Don’t hesitate to fight the Japs dirty. Most Americans, from the time they’re kids, are taught not to hit below the belt. It’s not sportsmanlike. Well, nobody has taught the Japs that, and war ain’t sport. Kick him in the balls before he kicks you in yours” (Terkel 199). There were no rules in the Pacific; Just War Theory didn’t exist with the Japanese. Therefore the Americans had to fight just as savagely in order to survive. This savagery cost each Marine a part of themselves. Taking Japanese prisoners was rare at best. The Japanese were taught never to surrender; so wounded Japanese would use their last ounce of strength to pull out a grenade and blow himself up, taking as many Marines with him as possible. Surrender wasn’t an option for the Marines either, after what happened in Bataan. There was no end in sight for these men. I wouldn’t be able to face what these Marines had to face in fighting the Japanese.   

I read about the story of Peter Ota, a Nasei; or Hawaiian-Japanese. After Pearl Harbor, Ota and his family were arrested and sent to internment camps. The living conditions there were terrible. “The barracks was all there was. There were no trees, no kind of landscaping. It was like a prison camp. Coming from our environment, it was just devastating” (Terkel 207). Peter Ota’s father put his faith in the US government; he believed that it would do anything that bad to its own citizens. Ota’s father was wrong, these camps destroyed many lives and families. The US government imprisoned innocent Japanese Americans out of fear and racism. America was making the same mistakes that other European nation made in past centuries, mistakes that America was determined not to repeat.

I also read a story about Betty Basye Hutchinson, a nurse in World War II. After Pearl Harbor, she wanted to do something to help in the war effort. “Immediately, I was going to become a nurse. That was the fastest thing I could do to help our boys” (Terkel 211). Hutchinson was on the orthopedic ward, she was struck by horror when she saw all the injuries that soldiers were sustaining in combat; it’s a lesson on Man’s cruelty to Man. I must’ve been incredibly hard for nurses to do their jobs. It was up to them to save many lives. It must’ve been devastating when a patient died right in front of you, after making all that effort to save them.  

In Studs Terkel’s intro to World War II, I read about the dramatic change in the US economy. Just like everything went from “Boom to Bust” in the great depression, everything turned around overnight when the US entered World War II. The narrator recalled, “In the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dr. New Deal was replaced by Dr. Win The War” (Terkel 168). Everything in the US was now being used to help the war effort. The New Deal helped a little with the depression, but World War II was the thing that completely pulled the US out of the depression. Positions in the military were opened up everywhere, which gave men jobs once again. While the men were off in the military, jobs in factories and labor and all the other jobs men were given, were no open to women. If it wasn’t for World War II, the US may never have recovered from the depression.    

I read the story of Arthur A. Robertson, a man who witnessed the stock market crash. His story was very descriptive, and it helped me understand the severity of the stock market crash. In the 1920’s, the stock market was a symbol of hope to people; there was no way this system could fail. But the stock market worked very differently back then. “Today, if you want to buy $100 worth of stock, you have to put up $80 and the broker will put up $20. In those days, you could put up $8 or $10” (Terkel 100). People were investing small amounts of money in stocks that could turn into huge debts. People didn’t know what they were getting into. This irresponsible spending is what caused the crash. When the crash hit, stock fell over 80 percent in value. People’s lives were ruined and many committed suicide. I also read a story about a farmer named Oscar Heline. He had to live through the troubles of the great depression. Like most other people, Heline lost his farm land and could hardly provide for his family. Grocery stores were giving their merchandise away because it was more expensive for them to maintain it. Everything went from good to bad overnight. This is like what’s happening with the economy today, people bought too many things on credit and now they are in massive debt. If a world war brought the US out of the depression last time, what will bring the economy out of this present day deperession.