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Oral Histories

Oral Histories. What is oral history?. Recorded interviews of spoken memories and personal commentaries of historical significance Dialogue between interviewer and interviewee – a product of both people Formats: audiorecording, video, or transcripts. Challenges of using oral histories.

caryn-weber
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Oral Histories

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  1. Oral Histories

  2. What is oral history? • Recorded interviews of spoken memories and personal commentaries of historical significance • Dialogue between interviewer and interviewee – a product of both people • Formats: audiorecording, video, or transcripts

  3. Challenges of using oral histories • Conversations are nonlinear, there may be false starts, dead ends, rambling • Oral history is a mixture of fact and opinion, are inherently subjective and individualistic and reflect personal biases • Need to balance oral history with other evidence

  4. Memory & oral history • Oral history is based on memory • Memory is fallible • Memory erodes over time • Memories are selective • Memories are condensed over time • Memories produce a jigsaw of the past, not necessarily and organized, coherent version

  5. Strengths of oral history • Voice of the common person • Provided sense of the times, a direct life experience • Provide information that isn’t available in other historic sources • Provides a personal angle on historical events

  6. Evaluating oral history • Who is saying what, to whom, for what purpose, and under what circumstances • Interviewee/narrator • Interviewer • Content of interview • Purpose of interview • Location of interview

  7. Sources of Oral history • UW Libraries Catalog • (interviews or oral history) and world war 1914 • Imperial War Museum • http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/ • Veteran’s History Project • http://www.loc.gov/vets/

  8. Other Types of Sources • Records • Enlistment forms • http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020106_e.html • Questionnaires • http://ajax.lva.lib.va.us/F/?func=file&file_name=find-b-clas13&local_base=CLAS13

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