The Oral History Reader

✍ Scribed by Robert Perks (editor), Alistair Thomson (editor)

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 743
• Series: Routledge Readers in History
• Edition: 3
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The Oral History Reader, now in its third edition, is a comprehensive, international anthology combining major, ‘classic’ articles with cutting-edge pieces on the theory, method and use of oral history. Twenty-seven new chapters introduce the most significant developments in oral history in the last decade to bring this invaluable text up to date, with new pieces on emotions and the senses, on crisis oral history, current thinking around traumatic memory, the impact of digital mobile technologies, and how oral history is being used in public contexts, with more international examples to draw in work from North and South America, Britain and Europe, Australasia, Asia and Africa.

Arranged in five thematic sections, each with an introduction by the editors to contextualise the selection and review relevant literature, articles in this collection draw upon diverse oral history experiences to examine issues including:

• Key debates in the development of oral history over the past seventy years

• First hand reflections on interview practice, and issues posed by the interview relationship

• The nature of memory and its significance in oral history

• The practical and ethical issues surrounding the interpretation, presentation and public use of oral testimonies

• how oral history projects contribute to the study of the past and involve the wider community.

• The challenges and contributions of oral history projects committed to advocacy and empowerment

With a revised and updated bibliography and useful contacts list, as well as a dedicated online resources page, this third edition of The Oral History Reader is the perfect tool for those encountering oral history for the first time, as well as for seasoned practitioners.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction to the third edition
PART I Critical developments: introduction
1 BLACK HISTORY, ORAL HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
2 THE VOICE OF THE PAST: ORAL HISTORY
3 ORAL HISTORY AND HARD TIMES: A REVIEW ESSAY
4 WHAT MAKES ORAL HISTORY DIFFERENT
5 POLITICS AND PRAXIS IN CANADIAN WORKING-CLASS ORAL HISTORY
6 ‘LISTENING IN THE COLD’: THE PRACTICE OF ORAL HISTORY IN AN ARGENTINE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITY
7 WHAT REMAINS: REFLECTIONS ON CRISIS ORAL HISTORY
8 ORAL HISTORY AND THE SENSES
9 ‘I JUST WANT TO CLICK ON IT TO LISTEN’: ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVES, ORALITY AND USABILITY
PART II Interviewing
10 INTERVIEWING AN INTERVIEWER
11 INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES AND STRATEGIES
12 LEARNING TO LISTEN: INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES AND ANALYSES
13 REMEMBERING IN GROUPS: NEGOTIATING BETWEEN ‘INDIVIDUAL’ AND ‘COLLECTIVE’ MEMORIES
14 INTERVIEWING THE WOMEN OF PHOKENG: CONSCIOUSNESS AND GENDER, INSIDER AND OUTSIDER
15 ISSUES IN CROSS-CULTURAL INTERVIEWING: JAPANESE WOMEN IN ENGLAND
16 RETICENCE IN ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS
17 TOWARD AN ETHICS OF SILENCE? NEGOTIATING OFF-THE-RECORD EVENTS AND IDENTITY IN ORAL HISTORY
18 IMAGING FAMILY MEMORIES: MY MUM, HER PHOTOGRAPHS, OUR MEMORIES
19 INTERVIEWING IN BUSINESS AND CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTS: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
PART III Interpreting memories
20 REMEMBERING SURVIVAL: INSIDE A NAZI SLAVE-LABOR CAMP
21 SURVIVING MEMORY: TRUTH AND INACCURACY IN HOLOCAUST TESTIMONY
22 REMEMBERING A VIETNAM WAR FIREFIGHT: CHANGING PERSPECTIVES OVER TIME
23 ANZAC MEMORIES: PUTTING POPULAR MEMORY THEORY INTO PRACTICE IN AUSTRALIA
24 PRIVATE LIFE IN STALIN’S RUSSIA: NARRATIVES, MEMORY AND ORAL HISTORY
25 MEMORY WORK IN JAVA: A CAUTIONARY TALE
26 SEX, ‘SILENCE’ AND AUDIOTAPE: LISTENING FOR FEMALE SAME-SEX DESIRE IN CUBA
27 ‘THAT’S NOT WHAT I SAID’: INTERPRETATIVE CONFLICT IN ORAL NARRATIVE RESEARCH
28 EVIDENCE, EMPATHY AND ETHICS: LESSONS FROM ORAL HISTORIES OF THE KLAN
29 REMEMBERING AND REWORKING EMOTIONS: THE REANALYSIS OF EMOTION IN AN INTERVIEW
PART IV Making histories
30 VOICE, EAR AND TEXT: WORDS, MEANING AND TRANSCRIPTION
31 EDITING ORAL HISTORY FOR PUBLICATION
32 THE AFFECTIVE POWER OF SOUND: ORAL HISTORY ON RADIO
33 FOUNDLING VOICES: PLACING ORAL HISTORY AT THE HEART OF AN ORAL HISTORY EXHIBITION
34 CO-CREATING OUR STORY: MAKING A DOCUMENTARY FILM
35 THE HISTORICAL HEARING AID: LOCATED ORAL HISTORY FROM THE LISTENER’S PERSPECTIVE
36 MAPPING MEMORIES OF DISPLACEMENT: ORAL HISTORY, MEMORYSCAPES AND MOBILE METHODOLOGIES
PART V Advocacy and empowerment
37 IMAGINING COMMUNITIES: MEMORY, LOSS AND RESILIENCE IN POST-APARTHEID CAPE TOWN
38 SOUND, MEMORY AND DIS/PLACEMENT: EXPLORING SOUND, SONG AND PERFORMANCE AS ORAL HISTORY IN THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN BORDERLANDS
39 ‘YOU HEAR IT IN THEIR VOICE’: PHOTOGRAPHS AND CULTURAL CONSOLIDATION AMONG INUIT YOUTHS AND ELDERS
40 ‘WE KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEM IS’: USING VIDEO AND RADIO ORAL HISTORY TO DEVELOP COLLABORATIVE ANALYSIS OF HOMELESSNESS
41 TRYING TO BE GOOD: LESSONS IN ORAL HISTORY AND PERFORMANCE
42 ORAL HISTORY AND NEW ORTHODOXIES: NARRATIVE ACCOUNTS IN THE HISTORY OF LEARNING DISABILITY
43 THE LIMITS OF ORAL HISTORY: ETHICS AND METHODOLOGY AMID HIGHLY POLITICIZED RESEARCH SETTINGS
Select bibliography
Useful contacts
Index