Questions From a Worker Who Reads

Oral historian Studs Terkel was inspired into his work by this poem.  Here is a quote from a 2007 interview.

“If I were to ask the audience now watching this Web site, ‘Who built the pyramids?’ the first reaction, reflex, is ‘pharaohs.’ The pharaohs didn’t lift a finger. … No, slaves, the anonymous ones through the centuries built the pyramids. … I’m interested in … those millions and multi-millions of people down through the centuries who made the wheels go round but never made our traditional history books. We hear of generals, we hear of kings, we have industrialists, great statesmen. But who are these others?" -- Studs Terkel via 

Questions From a Worker Who Reads

- Bertolt Brecht 1935 

Who built Thebes of the 7 gates ? 

In the books you will read the names of kings. 

Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock ? 

And Babylon, many times demolished, 

Who raised it up so many times ? 

In what houses of gold glittering Lima did its builders live ? 

Where, the evening that the Great Wall of China was finished, did the masons go?

Great Rome is full of triumphal arches. 

Who erected them ? 

Over whom did the Caesars triumph ?  

Had Byzantium, much praised in song, only palaces for its inhabitants ? 

Even in fabled Atlantis, the night that the ocean engulfed it, 

The drowning still cried out for their slaves. 

The young Alexander conquered India.

Was he alone ? 

Caesar defeated the Gauls. 

Did he not even have a cook with him ? 

Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down. 

Was he the only one to weep ?  

Frederick the 2nd won the 7 Years War. 

Who else won it ? 

Every page a victory. 

Who cooked the feast for the victors ?  

Every 10 years a great man. 

Who paid the bill ? 

So many reports.  

So many questions.