Overview

“History is written by the victors.” It is also usually written by the literate elite. What about the illiterate? The poor? The women? Oral History tries to fill these gaps. It treats memory as a valid historical source. It captures the texture of the past—the accent, the emotion, the hesitation—that a document cannot.

Core Idea

The core idea is democratization of history. Everyone has a story. By interviewing ordinary people (a factory worker, a grandmother, a soldier), we create a “history from below.” It challenges the “Great Man” theory of history (that only kings and generals matter).

Formal Definition

A method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. It relies on the interview as the primary tool.

Intuition

You can read a textbook about the Great Depression that lists unemployment statistics. Or you can listen to a recording of a man describing how he felt when he had to beg for food for his children. The statistic gives you the fact; the oral history gives you the meaning.

Examples

  • Slave Narratives: In the 1930s, the WPA interviewed thousands of former slaves in the US. These recordings are the only direct evidence we have of the lived experience of slavery from the enslaved perspective.
  • The Shoah Foundation: Spielberg’s project to record video testimonies of Holocaust survivors before they passed away.
  • StoryCorps: A modern project where ordinary Americans interview their loved ones in a recording booth.

Common Misconceptions

  • It’s unreliable: “Memory is faulty.” True, people forget or exaggerate. But oral historians argue that how someone remembers (and what they choose to forget) is itself a historical fact. It reveals their truth.
  • It’s just chatting: A good oral history interview requires deep preparation, skill in asking open-ended questions, and ethical protocols (consent).
  • Oral Tradition: The transmission of culture (myths, genealogies) across generations without writing. This is different from oral history (interviewing an eyewitness).
  • Collective Memory: How a group remembers its past (often different from the official history).
  • Transcription: The difficult process of turning speech into text. Do you include the “umms” and “ahhs”? (Yes, because they show emotion).

Applications

  • Community Building: Projects where neighborhoods document their own history to fight gentrification or build pride.
  • Human Rights: Documenting the testimony of victims of torture or war crimes for truth commissions.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Nostalgia: Interviewees often view the past through rose-colored glasses (“the good old days”).
  • Trauma: Asking people to relive traumatic events can be harmful if the interviewer is not trained.

Further Reading

  • Portelli, Alessandro. The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories. 1991. (A classic on the theory of memory).
  • Terkel, Studs. Working. 1974. (A masterpiece of oral history).
  • Ritchie, Donald A. Doing Oral History. 2003.