1640 Pages 32 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The rapid rise in the study of Oral History has been evident across a wide range of academic and community settings. From surgeons in England investigating the embodied memories of half-remembered techniques in no longer practiced operations, to truth and reconciliation projects in countries recovering from civil conflict, including in South Africa, Oral History is as diverse and widespread in practice as it is in application. This four-volume collection of cutting edge and canonical research will be of interest to students and scholars alike.

    Volume I: Collecting

    Part 1: Influences, Styles and Variations

    1. David Pablo Boder, I Did Not Interview the Dead (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1949), pp. xi-xiv; xvii-xix.

    2. Saul Benison, ‘Reflections on Oral History’, The American Archivist, 28, 1965, pp. 71-77.

    3. Allan Nevins, ‘The Uses of Oral History, First Colloquium of the Oral History Association (1966)’, extracted from Allan Nevins, ‘Oral History: How and Why It was Born’ in David K. Dunaway and Willa K. Baum (eds.), Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 1996), pp. 31-36.

    4. William W. Moss, ‘Oral History as Evidence’, extract from Oral History Program Manual (New York: Praeger, 1974), pp. 8-12.

    5. Donald A. Ritchie, ‘Oral History in the Federal Government’, The Journal of American History, 74, 2, 1987, pp. 587–95.

    6. George Ewart Evans, ‘Flesh and Blood Archives: Some Early Experiences’, Oral History, 1, 1 1972, pp. 3–4.

    7. Eric Cregeen, ‘Oral Sources for the Social History of the Scottish Highlands and Islands’, Oral History, 2, 2, 1974, pp. 23–36.

    8. Elizabeth Tonkin, ‘Steps to the Redefinition of "Oral History": Examples from Africa’, Social History, 7, 3, 1982, pp. 329–35.

    9. Indira Chowdhury, ‘Oral Traditions and Contemporary History’, Economic and Political Weekly, XLIX, 30, 2014, pp. 54–59.

    10. Alex Haley, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, (London: Picador, 1978), pp. 621-35.

    11. Sherna Gluck, ‘What’s so Special about Women? Women’s Oral History’, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 2, 2, 1977, pp. 3–17.

    12. Paul Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral History, 1st edn. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), pp. 1-12; 15-16; 18.

    13. Kim Howells and Merfyn Jones, ‘Oral History and Contemporary History’, Oral History, 11, 2, 1983, pp. 15–20.

    14. Joanna Bornat, ‘Reminiscence and Oral History: Parallel Universes or Shared Endeavour?’, Ageing and Society, 21, 2001, pp. 219–41.

    15. Alessandro Portelli, ‘A Dialogical Relationship. An Approach to Oral History’, Expressions Annual, 2005, pp. 1-8.

    Part 2: Before the Interview

    16. Ronald J. Grele, ‘Movement without Aim’, in Envelopes of Sound: Art of Oral History, 2nd edn., (New York: Praeger, 1991), pp. 126-56.

    17. Perry K. Blatz, 'Craftsmanship and Flexibility in Oral History: A Pluralistic Approach to Methodology and Theory’, The Public Historian, 12, 4, 1990, pp. 7-22.

    18. Mary A. Larson, ‘Research Design and Strategies’ in Thomas L. Charlton, Lois E. Myers, and Rebecca Sharpless (eds.), Handbook of Oral History (Lanham, MD: Rowman Altamira, 2006), pp. 105–128; 131-34.

    19. Anna Sheftel, ‘"I Don’t Fancy History Very Much"’: Reflections on Interviewee Recruitment and Refusal in Bosnia-Herzegovina’, in Stacey Zembrzycki and Anna Sheftel (eds.), Oral History off the Record: Toward an Ethnography of Practice (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), pp. 255–71.

    20. Nan Alamilla Boyd, ‘Who Is the Subject? Queer Theory Meets Oral History’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 17, 2, 2008, pp. 177–89.

    Part 3: The Interview

    21. Charles T. Morrissey, ‘On Oral History Interviewing’, first published in L.A. Dexter (ed.), Elite and Specialised Interviewing (Evanston III.: Northwestern University Press, 1970), edited and republished in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds.) The Oral History Reader, 1st edn. (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 109-118.

    22. Peter Friedlander, ‘Theory, Method and Oral History’, Peter Friedlander (ed.), The Emergence of UAW Local, 1936-39: A Study in Class and Culture (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1975), edited and republished in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds.) The Oral History Reader, 1st edn. (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 311-19.

    23. Daniel Bertaux, ‘Stories as Clues to Sociological Understanding: The Bakers of Paris’, Paul Thompson and Natasha Burchardt (eds.), Our Common History: The Transformation of Europe (New York: Humanities Press, 1982), pp. 93–108.

    24. Kathryn Anderson and Dana C. Jack, 'Learning to Listen: Interview Techniques and Analyses', in Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai (eds.), Women 's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History (London and New York: Routledge, 1991), pp. 11-27.

    25. Valerie Yow, ‘"Do I like Them Too Much?": Effects of the Oral History Interview on the Interviewer and Vice-Versa’, The Oral History Review, 24, 1, 1997, 55–79, edited and republished in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds.) The Oral History Reader, 2nd edn., pp. 54-72.

    26. Sandy Polishuk, ‘Secrets, Lies, and Misremembering: The Perils of Oral History Interviewing’, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 19, 3, 1998, pp. 14–23.

    Part 4: Trauma and Silences

    27. Wendy Rickard, ‘Oral History- ‘More Dangerous than Therapy’?: Interviewees’ Reflections on Recording Traumatic or Taboo Issues’, Oral History, 26, 2, 1998, pp. 34–48.

    28. Antoinette Errante, ‘But Sometimes You’re Not Part of the Story: Oral Histories and Ways of Remembering and Telling’, Educational Researcher, 29, 2, 2000, pp. 16–27.

    29. Sean Field, 'Beyond "Healing": Trauma, Oral History and Regeneration', Oral History, 34, 2006, pp. 31-42.

    30. Selma Leydesdorff, ‘Stories from No Land: The Women of Srebrenica Speak Out’, Human Rights Review, 8, 3, 2007, pp. 187–98.

    31. Helga Amesberger, ‘Oral History and Trauma: Experiences of Sexualised Violence under National Socialist Persecution’. Translated by Diana Siclovan. Orginally published as ‘Oral History und Traumatisierung – am Beispiel der Erfahrung sexualisierter Gewalt während der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung’, in Heinrich Berger, Gerhard Botz, Stefan Karner, Helmut Konrad, Siegfried Mattl, Barbara Stelzl-Marx, und Andrea Strutz (eds.), Terror und Geschichte, Veröffentlichungen des Cluster Geschichte der Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft, (Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 2012), pp. 233-246.

     

    Volume II: Analyzing

    Part 1: History

    32. Linda Shopes, ‘"Insights and Oversights": Reflections on the Documentary Tradition and the Theoretical Turn in Oral History’, The Oral History Review, 41, 2, 2014, pp. 257–68.

    33. Ron Grele, ‘Listen to Their Voices: Two Case Studies in the Interpretation of Oral History Interviews', Oral History, 7, 1, 1979, pp. 33-42.

    34. Alessandro Portelli, ‘The Peculiarities of Oral History’, History Workshop, 12, 1981, pp. 96–107.

    35. Luisa Passerini, ‘Work, Ideology and Working Class Attitudes to Fascism’, in Paul Thompson and Natasha Burchardt (eds.), Our Common History: The Transformation of Europe (London: Pluto Press, 1982), pp. 54–78.

    36. Trevor Lummis, ‘Structure and Validity in Oral Evidence’, International Journal of Oral History, 2, 1983, pp. 109–20.

    37. Alessandro Portelli, ‘Oral History as Genre’, in The Battle of Valle Giulia: The Art of Dialogue in Oral History (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997), pp. 3–23; 294-301.

    38. Yogesh Raj, ‘History as Mindscapes’, edited extract from History as Mindscapes: A Memory of the Peasants’ Movement of Nepal (Nepal: Martin Chautari,2010), pp. 9-21.

    Part 2: Narrative

    39. Katherine Borland, ‘"That’s Not What I Said": Interpretative Conflict in Oral Narrative Research’, in Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai (eds.), Women 's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History (London and New York: Routledge, 1991), pp. 63-75.

    40. Mary Chamberlain, ‘Narrative Theory’, in Thomas L. Charlton, Lois E. Myers, and Rebecca Sharpless (eds.), Handbook of Oral History, (Lanham, MD: Rowman Altamira, 2006), pp. 384–407.

    41. Anne Heimo, ‘The Use of Eyewitness Testimony in Constructing Local History: What Really Happened during the 1918 Finnish Civil War in Sammatti?’ in Markku Lehtimäki, Simo Leisti, and Marja Rytkönen (eds.), Real Stories, Imagined Realities: Fictionality and Non-Fictionality in Literary Constructs and Historical Contexts (Tampere: Tampere University Press, 2007), pp. 247–72.

    42. Sally Alexander, ‘Memory-Talk: London Childhoods’, in Susannah Radstone and Bill Schwartz (eds.) Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates (New York: Fordham University Press, 2010), pp. 235-245.

    43. Nanci Adler, ‘Communism’s ‘Bright Past’: Loyalty to the Party despite the Gulag’, Culture & History Digital Journal, 3, 2, 2014, pp. 1-9.

    Part 3: Memory

    44. Lynn Abrams, ‘Memory as Both Source and Subject of Study: The Transformations of Oral History’, in Stefan Berger and Bill Niven (eds.), Writing the History of Memory (London: A&C Black, 2014), pp. 90–109.

    45. Popular Memory Group, 'Popular Memory, Theory, Politics, Method'. in Richard Johnson (ed.), Making Histories: Studies in History-Writing and Politics (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1982), pp. 206-220, edited and republished in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds.) The Oral History Reader, 1st edn (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 75-86.

    46. Alistair Thomson, ‘The Anzac Legend’ in Raphael Samuel and Paul Thompson, The Myths We Live By (London and New York: Routledge, 1990), pp. 73-82.

    47. Samuel Schrager, ‘What Is Social in Oral History?’, International Journal of Oral History, 4, 2, 1983, pp. 76–98, edited and republished in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds.) The Oral History Reader, 1st edn. (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 284-299.

    48. Chris Wickham and James J. Fentress, ‘Conclusion’, Social Memory: New Perspectives on the Past (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), pp. 200-202.

    49. Elizabeth Tonkin, 'Truthfulness, history and identity', in Narrating Our Pasts: The Social Construction of Oral History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 113-21; 124-136; 149-152.

    50. Mark Roseman, ‘Surviving Memory: Truth and Inaccuracy in Holocaust Testimony’, The Journal of Holocaust Education, 8, 1, 1999, pp. 1–20.

    51. Daniel James, ‘Meatpackers, Peronists, and Collective Memory: A View from the South’, The American Historical Review, 102, no. 5, 1997, pp.1404–12.

    52. Penny Summerfield, 'Culture and Composure: Creating Narratives of the Gendered Self in Oral History Interviews', Cultural and Social History, 1, 2004, pp. 65-93.

    53. Anna Green, ‘Individual Remembering and "Collective Memory": Theoretical Presuppositions and Contemporary Debates’, Oral History, 32, 2, 2004, pp. 35–44.

    54. Graham Smith, ‘Beyond Individual/ Collective Memory: Women’s Transactive Memories of Food, Family and Conflict’, Oral History, 35, 2, 2007, pp.77–90.

    55. Paula Hamilton, ‘The Proust Effect: Oral History and the Senses’, in Donald A. Ritchie (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Oral History (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 219–32.

     

    Volume III: Sharing

    Part 1: Archiving

    56. Rob Perks, ‘‘Messiah with a Microphone?’: Oral Historians, Technology and Sound Archives’, Donald A. Ritchie (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Oral History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp.315-32.

    57. Martha Jane K. Zachert, ‘The Implications of Oral History for Librarians’, College & Research Libraries, 29, 2, 1968, pp. 101–3.

    58. William W. Moss and P. C. Mazikana, Archives, Oral History, and Oral Tradition: A Ramp Study, (Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 1986), pp. 5-10; 29-30; 48-52; 53-61.

    59. Ellen Swain, ‘Oral History in the Archives: Its Documentary Role in the Twenty-first Century’, The American Archivist, 66, 1, 2003, pp. 139-158.

    60. Malin Thor Tureby, ‘To Hear with the Collection: The Contextualisation and Recontextualisation of Archived Interviews’, Oral History, 41, 2, 2013, pp. 63–74.

    61. Doug Boyd, ‘"I Just Want to Click on It to Listen": Oral History Archives, Orality, and Usability’, in Doug Boyd and Mary A. Larson (eds.), Oral History and Digital Humanities (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. 77-95.

    Part 2: Words

    62. Raphael Samuel, ‘Perils of the Transcript’, Oral History, 1, 2, 1972, pp. 19–22.

    63. Elinor A Mazé, ‘The Uneasy Page: Transcribing and Editing Oral History’, in Leslie Roy Ballard (ed.) History of Oral History: Foundations and Methodology (Lanham, MD: Rowman Altamira, 2007), pp. 237-271.

    64. Krista Woodley, ‘Let the Data Sing: Representing Discourse in Poetic Form’, Oral History, 32, 1, 2004, pp. 49–58.

    65. Bogusia Temple, ‘Casting a Wider Net: Reflecting on Translation in Oral History’, Oral History, 41, 2, 2013, pp. 100–109.

    Part 3: (Re)use

    66. Michael Frisch, ‘Three Dimensions and More: Oral history beyond the Paradoxes of Method’, in Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber (ed.), Handbook of Emergent Methods, (New York: Guilford Press, 2008), pp. 221 –238.

    67. Freund, Alexander, ‘Oral History as Process-Generated Data’, Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 34, 2009, pp. 22–48.

    68. Joanna Bornat, ‘Secondary Analysis in Reflection: Some Experiences of Re-Use from an Oral History Perspective’, Families, Relationships and Societies, 2, 2, 2013, pp. 309–17.

    69. Mary Larson, ‘Steering Clear of the Rocks: A Look at the Current State of Oral History Ethics in the Digital Age’, The Oral History Review, 40, 1, 2013, pp. 36–49 (extracts).

    Part 4: Authority

    70. Michael Frisch, A Shared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning of Oral and Public History (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1990), pp. xx-xxiii; 21-23; 27.

    71. Alicia J. Rouverol and Cedric N. Chatterley, ‘‘I Was Content and Not Content’: Oral History and the Collaborative Process’, Oral History, 28, 2, 2000, pp. 66–78.

    72. Lorraine Sitzia, ‘A Shared Authority: An Impossible Goal?’, The Oral History Review, 30, 1, 2003, pp. 87–101.

    73. Erin Jessee, ‘The Limits of Oral History: Ethics and Methodology Amid Highly Politicized Research Settings’. The Oral History Review, 38, 2, 2011, pp. 287–307.

    Part 5: Education

    74. William Cutler et al., ‘Oral History as a Teaching Tool’, The Oral History Review, 1, 1973, pp. 29–47.

    75. Rina Benmayor, ‘Technology and Pedagogy in the Oral History Classroom’, Works and Days, 16, 1998, pp. 177-192.

    76. Howard Levin, ‘Authentic Doing: Student-Produced Web-Based Digital Video Oral Histories’, The Oral History Review, 38,1, 2011, pp. 6–27.

    77. Anne Valk and Holly Ewald, ‘Bringing a Hidden Pond to Public Attention: Increasing Impact through Digital Tools’, The Oral History Review, 40, 1, 2013, pp. 8–24.

    78. Marjorie L. McLellan, ‘Beyond the Transcript: Oral History and Pedagogy’, in Doug Boyd and Mary A. Larson (eds.), Oral History and Digital Humanities, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. 99–118.

     

    Volume IV: Presenting

    Part 1: Communities

    79. Linda Shopes, ‘Oral History and the Study of Communities: Problems, Paradoxes, and Possibilities’. The Journal of American History, 89, 2, 2002, pp. 588–98.

    80. Sven B Ek, ‘Prejudice and Reality’ in François Bédarida, Philippe Joutard, Jean-Pierre Rioux, and Danièle Voldman (eds.) IVME Colloque International d’Historie Orale (Aix-en-Province: Centre de Recherches Méditerranéennes sur les Ethnotextes, L’Histoire Orale et le Parles Régionaux, 1982), pp. 357–67.

    81. Sven Lindqvist, ‘Dig Where You Stand’, in Raphael Samuel and Paul Thompson (eds.) The Myths We Live By, (London and New York: Routledge, 1990), pp. 322–30.

    82. Rob Perks, ‘The Roots of Oral History: Exploring Contrasting Attitudes to Elite, Corporate, and Business Oral History in Britain and the U.S.’, The Oral History Review, 37, 2, 2010, pp. 215–24.

    83. Akemi Kikumura, ‘Family Life Histories: A Collaborative Venture’, The Oral History Review, 14, 1, 1986), pp. 1–7.

    84. Hugo Slim and Paul Thompson with Olivia Bennett and Nigel Cross, ‘Ways of Listening’, in Hugo Slim and Paul Thompson, with Olivia Bennett and Nigel Cross (eds.), Listening for Change: Oral History and Development, London, Panos, 1993, pp. 61–94, edited and republished in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds.) The Oral History Reader, 1st edn. (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 143–54.

    85. Anna Hirsch and Claire Dixon. ‘Katrina Narratives: What Creative Writers Can Teach Us about Oral History’, The Oral History Review 35, 2, 2008, pp. 187–95.

    Part 2: Public History

    86. Enid H. Douglass, ‘Oral History and Public History’, The Oral History Review, 8, 1, 1980, pp. 1–5.

    87. Jo Blatti, ‘Public History and Oral History’, The Journal of American History 77, 2, 1990, pp. 615–25.

    88. Michael Frisch, ‘Oral History, Documentary, and the Mystification of Power: A Case Study Critique of Public Methodology’, International Journal of Oral History, 6, 2, 1985, pp. 118–25.

    89. Green, Anna, ‘Returning History to the Community: Oral History in a Museum Setting’, The Oral History Review, 24, 2, 1997, pp. 53–72.

    90. Jeff Friedman, ‘"Muscle Memory": Performing Oral History’, Oral History, 33, 2, 2005, pp. 35–47.

    91. Charles Hardy III, ‘Authoring in Sound: Aural History, Radio and the Digital Revolution’, in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds.) The Oral History Reader, 1st edn. (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 393–405.

    92. Neufeld, David. ‘Parks Canada, the Commemoration of Canada, and Northern Aboriginal Oral History’, in Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes (eds.) Oral History and Public Memories (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2008), pp. 7–29.

    93. Steven High, ‘Mapping Memories of Displacement: Oral History, Memoryscapes, and Mobile Methodologies’, in Shelley Trower (ed.) Place, Writing, and Voice in Oral History, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 217–31.

    Part 3: Politics and Power

    94. Lena Inowlocki, ‘Denying the Past: Right Wing Extremist Youth in West Germany’. Life stories/Recits de Vie, 1, 1985, pp. 6-15.

    95. Kim Lacy Rogers, ‘Memory, Struggle, and Power: On Interviewing Political Activists’, The Oral History Review 15, 1, 1987, pp. 165–84.

    96. Joan Sangster, ‘Telling Our Stories: Feminist Debates and the Use of Oral History’, Women’s History Review, 3, 1994, pp. 5–28.

    97. Gerardo Médica and Viviana Villegas, ‘Alongside Route 3, ‘The Glorious Double P’: An Approach to ‘Peronist Faggots’ (‘Putos Peronistas’) of La Matanza / A La Vera de La Ruta 3 "la Gloriosa Doble P". Una Aproximación a Los "Putos Peronistas" de La Matanza’, Oral History Forum/D’histoire Orale, 32, 2012, pp. 1-17.

    98. Daniela Koleva, ‘Homo-Sovieticus Surviving Democracy? Post-Socialist Nostalgia in Bulgaria’, in Barbara Törnquist-Plewa and Krzysztof Stala (eds.), Cultural Transformations after Communism: Central and Eastern Europe in Focus, (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2011), pp. 147-162.

    Part 4: Empowerment?

    99. Joanna Bornat, ‘Oral History as a Social Movement: Reminiscence and Older People’ Oral History, 17, 2, 1989, pp. 16–24.

    100. William Westerman, ‘Central American Refugee Testimonies and Performed Life Histories in the Sanctuary Movement’, in Rina Benmayor and Andor Skotnes (eds.), International Yearbook of Oral History and Life Stories: Volume III, Migration and Identity, edited by (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 167–81.

    101. Daniel Kerr, ‘Countering Corporate Narratives from the Streets: The Cleveland Homeless Oral History Project’, in Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes (eds.) Oral History and Public Memories (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2008), pp. 231-251.

    102. Sheena Rolph and Dorothy Atkinson, ‘Emotion in Narrating the History of Learning Disability’, Oral History 38, 2, 2010, pp. 53–63.

    103. Peter Read, ‘The Truth Which Will Set Us All Free: National Reconciliation, Oral History and the Conspiracy of Silence’, Oral History, 35, 1, 2007, pp. 98–106.

    104. Alexander Freund, ‘Under Storytelling’s Spell? Oral History in a Neoliberal Age’, The Oral History Review, 42, 1, 2015, pp. 96–132.