Chicago /

The Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian celebrates his own hometown this time out, and he finds it's a Janus-faced place. There's corruption and nobility, Al Capone and Jane Addams, the Cabrini-Green housing project and the United Neighborhood Organization, and all manner of other sharp contrasts. Studs misses few of them in this brief memoir, but he does share a lot of fond memories: the night Joe Louis took out Max Schmeling in the first round and all black Chicago (all black America!) rejoiced; ``the Big Chicago Snow-In'' of 1967, when the city was inundated and immobilized for three help-filled days; and, on a more intimate note, the time he and a bag lady shook down a quarter-swallowing Chicago Tribune vending machine. Like his holiday-tribute radio shows, this is good, sentimental-tough-guy Americana, all the better if you can imagine Studs' gin-and-cigar-soaked voice honeydripping it into your ears. The finished book will include 60 years (or more) worth of photos by the city's famous snapsters. RO. 977.3'11 Chicago (Illinois History 1875- / Chicago (Illinois) Social life and customs / Terkel, Studs [CIP] 86-5078

From December 1941 to February 1943 Orwell wrote commentaries on the war to be broadcast on BBC. Orwell had access to transcripts of all Axis broadcasts and a great deal of Allied material. Writing to refute carefully targeted Axis broadcasts and to present Allied successes and reverses in the best light, while working within the limits of censorship, he produced propaganda of the highest quality. Orwell scholars will see forerunners of themes in 1984. Historians will see a useful record of the day-to-day prosecution of the war. The clarity, the care with which Orwell expresses every nuance, and the tone of evident commonsense are masterful; and yet, however interesting, this will have a limited audience. An excellent preface and selected Axis broadcasts are included. Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army TRALINET Ctr . , Fort Monroe, Va. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A collage of impressions and historical anecdotes by the author who over the years has become the guru of the Second City. Certain to be popular ""in the state of Elanoy,"" this brief (144 pages) reminiscence may fare less well in the remaining 49. Terkel assumes his readers will be familiar with many of the personalties and events he depicts. And, while it is true that much of the material is well known--the career of Al Capone and the Haymarket Riot, for example--all too often Terkel fails to provide much in the way of background and exposition of his more obscure references. From time to time, colorful details surface which briefly capture the attention but much of the time the material is too specialized and/or minor to hold much interest for the general reader. As he had before (The Good War, Working and Hard Times, among others), Terkel brings his own individual voice to the work. As an ""oral historian,"" it is in recreating his conversations with fellow Chicagoans that he is most appealing. Here he exhibits the breezy vitality that seems characteristic of the Windy City. The re is no denying that Terkel's enthusiasms are wide-ranging. They include everything from inner-city murals to Greek coffeehouses; from Pablo Picasso's controversial sculpture to the Dreamland Ballroom; from blizzards to ""no-hitters"" at Wrigley Field. For ""out-of-towners,"" however, these glimpses of Chicago life are just not striking enough to rivet the attention. Fifty-five black-and-white photographs ""by several generations of the city's most renowned photographers"" (not seen) will doubtlessly do much to flesh out this paean to Terkel's hometown. As text, however, Chicago is too obviously aimed at those Second City dwellers who wish to revel in nostalgia and self-congratulation. For others, it is likely to prove frustrating and less than completely satisfying. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.