Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession.

In Studs Terkel's compelling new work, Race: How Blacks & Whites Think & Feel About The American Obsession, witnesses offer poignant impressions of racism, which one witness terms our "harshest slave-master."

His visit with Mamie Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy murdered in Mississippi in 1955 by two white men, is a compelling example. this dialogue establishes an intimate resonance retained throughout the book.

Terkel can make people relax, think and reflect. For example, novelist Charles Johnson says, "During the civil rights years, there was at least a sense of movement toward brotherhood. There was the ideal that once we got rid of Jim Crow, things would be better. It's 20 years later and they haven't gotten any better."

Terkel's voices capture what lies in most hearts.