Oral History Essay

An oral history interview has a multitude of elements that differentiates it from a normal journalistic interview. “Oral history is primary source material collected in an interview setting with a witness to or participant in an event or a way of life and is grounded in context of time and place to give it meaning…” (COHT Volume 1 pg.26). The purpose is preserve the information and keep for future generations, researchers, and the community. Oral histories are made so that communities do not lose

Oral accounts are crucial to understanding historical events which may have not been recorded through text. The whole process in oral history is important to create the bigger image of the story and provide the meaning. The act of listening is just as complex as interpreting the story, both aspects give history a better understanding. The uniqueness of oral history can’t compare to written history due to the compassion and emotions that are evoked while talking. There are social implications of oral

Oral history has been a vital source of historical and important information since the beginning of human interaction. Recordings and one on one interviews with someone who lived through a certain time period or particular event can often provide a substantial amount of information and evidences on a subject that one may be researching. Unfortunately oral history does has its flaws, and it does not always provide the best source of information. Often information from direct interviews and other forms

Sugiman illustrated four ways that self-reflexivity was essential for an oral historian, those being able to navigate opposing or contesting ideas, being open to critique, being aware of ones own biases, and being conscious of self and personal choices and objectives (p. 301). In terms of being open to critique, this is important for any type of work and it allows for growth as a researcher but also as an individual. As mentioned in the previous question, shared authority is important, but also

of public history issues does an individual encounter daily at their local community’s historical society? The public history issues that I have come across in my professional experience include topics as memory, oral histories, and the categorizing of archives. For my professional experience hours, I am volunteering at Los Alamos’ local historical society, where the organization is currently conducting several oral histories and cataloging their archives. While conducting oral histories on World

The Meaning and Implication of Oral History In the United States the institutional beginnings of oral history can be traced back to Allan Nevins’s Oral History Project at Columbia University in 1948. As a field it developed in the early 1980s and at this time advocates started to seriously reflect on its methods and implications. Today oral history and public history are considered the growth engine of the historical discipline, absorbing many historians who are competing in a tight job market

What does ‘oral history’ entail, and what use can it be to the agendas of anthropologists, or historians or archaeologists? Rowse states that ‘human society, its story and how it has come to be what it is, is due to the factors that operate in them’ (Rowse, 1963). This is especially true when looking at history from an oral historian’s perspective. Oral history has always been a topic open to much debate – whether or not it is a method worthy of one’s time; often branded as ‘radical history’. History

Hua 1 Dang Hua Professor Mary Anderson American Studies 101 27 September 2015 Oral History Paper The subject of my interview is a 68 year elderly Vietnamese man named Minh “Bi” Ngo. Mr. Ngo has white long hair, a medium long white beard and a distinctive mole on the bottom of his left eye and a thick Vietnamese accent. He was born and raised in Vietnam on April 3rd, 1947. He is also a widow who is currently living with his daughter in Westminster, Orange County. Originally, Mr. Ngo was from the

Oral History Rough Draft (After beginning the interview and gathering information I decided to switch up my questions, and narrow them down to be more specific to her personally from what I had in my oral proposal) Interviewee: Barbara Gaston Barbara Gaston was an old family/friend, who I didn’t have much history on. She grew up in Cincinnati, OH. She married at age 23 and defined herself primarily as a wife and mother for the next 20 years. She was a young mother and wife, which was not untypical

Lyrics Annotations Oral history happens within communities, and it gives people opportunities. To learn about human interaction, develop a language and taking action. Oral history can often give you a better idea about culture and people because there is less open to interpretation than a written document. Language is one of the biggest parts of human language and our language and communication skills would be much less advanced without our oral histories. Speaking the information