The Oxford Handbook of Oral History

by Donald A. Ritchie

Overview

In the past sixty years, oral history has moved from the periphery to the mainstream of academic studies and is now employed as a research tool by historians, anthropologists, sociologists, medical therapists, documentary film makers, and educators at all levels. The Oxford Handbook of Oral History brings together forty authors on five continents to address the evolution of oral history, the impact of digital technology, the most recent methodological and archival issues, and the application of oral history to both scholarly research and public presentations. The volume is addressed to seasoned practitioners as well as to newcomers, offering diverse perspectives on the current state of the field and its likely future developments. Some of its chapters survey large areas of oral history research and examine how they developed; others offer case studies that deal with specific projects, issues, and applications of oral history. From the Holocaust, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, the Falklands War in Argentina, the Velvet Revolution in Eastern Europe, to memories of September 11, 2001 and of Hurricane Katrina, the creative and essential efforts of oral historians worldwide are examined and explained in this multipurpose handbook.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199945061
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2012
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Donald A. Ritchie is historian of the U.S. Senate, where he conducts an oral history program. A past president of the Oral History Association, he has also served on the councils of the International Oral History Association and the American Historical Association. He is the author of many books, including Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide (OUP, 2003), Reporting from Washington (OUP, 2005) and The U.S. Congress: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2010).

Table of Contents

Contributors
Introduction: The Evolution of Oral History
Donald A. Ritchie
Part I The Nature of Interviewing
1. The Dynamics of Interviewing
Mary Kay Quinlan
2. Those Who Prevailed and Those Who Were Replaced: Interviewing on Both Sides of a Conflict:
Miroslav Vanek
3. Interviewing in Cross-Cultural Settings
William Schneider
4. Case Study: Oral History and Democracy: Lessons from Illiterates
Mercedes Vilanova
Part II Memory and History
5. Memory and Remembering in Oral History
Alistair Thomson
6. Can Memory be Collective?
Anna Green
7. Case Study: Rome's House of Memory and History: The Politics of Memory and Public Institutions
Alessandro Portelli
8. How Does One Win a Lost War? Oral History and Political Memories
Federico Guillermo Lorenz
9. Disappointed Remains: Trauma, Testimony and Reconciliation in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Sean Field
10. Case Study: Memory Work with Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa
Philippe Denis
Part III Theory and Interpretation
11. The Stages of Women's Oral History
Sue Armitage
12. Race and Oral History
Albert Broussard
13. Remembering in Later Life: Generating Individual and Social Change
Joanna Bornat
14. Oral History and the Senses
Paula Hamilton
15. After Action: Oral History and War
Megan Hutching
16. Case Study: "Above all, we need the witness": The Oral History of Holocaust Survivors
Jessica Wiederhorn
17. Case Study: Field Notes on Catastrophe: Reflections on the September 11, 2001
Oral History Memory and Narrative Project
Mary Marshall Clark
Part IV The Technological Impact
18. Doing Video Oral History
Brien Williams
19. Case Study: Opening Up Memory Space: The Challenges of Audiovisual History
Albert Lichtblau
20. Achieving the Promise of Oral History in a Digital Age
Doug Boyd
21. Oral History: Media, Message, and Meaning
Clifford M. Kuhn
22. Messiah with a Microphone? Oral Historians, Technology, and Sound Archives
Robert B. Perks
23. Case Study: Between the Raw and the Cooked in Oral History: Notes from the Kitchen
Michael Frisch and Douglas Lambert
Part V Legal, Ethical and Archival Imperatives
24. The Legal Ramifications of Oral History
John Neuenschwander
25. Medical Ethics and Oral History
Michelle Winslow and Graham Smith
26. The Archival Imperative: Can Oral History Survive the Funding Crisis in Archival Institutions?
Beth M. Robertson
27. Case Study: The Southern Oral History Program
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall interviewed by Kathryn Nasstrom
28. Case Study: What is it that University-Based Oral History Can Do? The Berkeley Experience
Richard Cándida Smith
Part VI Presenting Oral History
29. Towards a Public Oral History
Graham Smith
30. Motivating the Twenty-First-Century Student with Oral History
Glenn Whitman
31. Oral History in Universities: From Margins to Mainstream
Janis Wilton
32: Case Study: Engaging Interpretation through Digital Technologies
Rina Benmayor
33: Oral History in the Digital Age
Sheila Brennan, James Halabuk, Sharon Leon, Tom Scheinfeldt, and Kelly Schrum
Index