Oral History
Dissertation lecture, week 3, term 1
Dan Branch
Introduction
General reminder: need to be getting idea of topics, questions & supervisors. If
you’ve not been to speak to your likely supervisor, do so in their office hours
very soon and certainly before reading week.
Remember “All history was at first oral (Samuel Johnson, 1773).” Much of what
we often think of as written sources are in fact based on oral testimony.
Although this lecture will obviously give particular attention to basic questions
of interviewing, using testimony and other matters, such as ethics, there is much
that will be said of much wider applicability.
Part I: The challenges of oral history
In this section we’ll consider the way in which oral history has been used
effectively by historians and some of the challenges that the methodology poses.
Why oral history?


To study the act of memory; what is remembered, what is not
remembered and why?
o Rumour and misunderstanding as important as accurate
recollection.
To study history missing from the archives:
o Marginalised groups and themes (‘history from below’)
o Elites
o The everyday – it is the exceptional and extraordinary that is often
recorded in the archives; oral testimony provides one way to study
the past as lived.
o Continuity
Challenges of oral history
 Intellectual
o Memory
 Practical
o The challenge of the interview
 See link to Warwick-based and externally based training
material.
 Resources (time and money)
Part II: The interview
In this section, I’ll discuss (from sometimes bitter personal experience) some of
the things to consider about setting up, carrying out and storing the material
gathered in interviews. Although directly relevant to those interested in doing
interview as part of their dissertation, this section poses questions that you
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should ask of interview transcripts and other written sources derived from oral
testimony that you come across.
Before the interview
 Ethics
o See link at end of this set of notes for link to the department’s
ethics policy and to the form that needs completion.
 Research
o All sources work best in conversation with other sources; do your
homework.
 Identifying subjects
o How and for what purpose?
During the interview
 Technology
 Setting
 Structure
 Power
o Gender, class, generation.
o Awareness of the signals that fact of interviewing transmits to the
interviewee and consideration of that on the testimony provided.
After the interview
 Transcription
 Communication with interviewees
 Storage and preservation
o Organisation matters!
Part III: Writing with oral testimony
 Let the sources speak, but not at expense of analysis and a critical
reflection on the methodology.
Conclusion
 Know your sources, written or oral.
 Be creative but methodologically rigorous.
Useful links:
History Department’s ethics pages, including a link to the ethics form that needs
to be completed by anyone who plans to use interviews in their dissertation
research:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/intranet/ethics
Warwick’s Oral History Network ran a training programme for individuals
interested in oral history. As well as hosting a wide range of information of
interest, the network’s website includes a reading list for the training
programme:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/ias/activities/supported/researchne
tworks/oralhistory/training/
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Institute of Historical Research’s ‘Making History’ project, including interviews
with distinguished historians:
http://www.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/index.html
Oral History Society’s ‘Getting Started’ webpage:
http://www.oralhistory.org.uk/practical-advice.php
Oral History Association’s ‘Principles and Best Practice’ webpage:
http://www.oralhistory.org/about/principles-and-practices/
Further reading
For two excellent collections covering the practice and use of oral history see:

Robert Perks & Alistair Thomson, The Oral History Reader (various
editions).

Donald Ritchie, The Oxford Handbook of Oral History (Oxford, Oxford
University Press: 2011), e-book available through the library.
For an excellent example of oral history in practice by a Warwick historian, see:
 Angela Davis, Modern Motherhood: Women and Family in England, c.19452000 (Manchester, Manchester University Press: 2012).
For two classic works (both available as e-books and in hard copy in the library)
that demonstrate the fantastic potential of oral history and which discuss many
of the questions covered in this lecture to greater effect see:


Alessandro Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli, and Other Stories (Albany,
SUNY Press: 1991).
Luise White, Speaking with Vampires: Rumor and History in Colonial Africa
(Berkeley, University of California Press: 2000).
Although not available in the library, Kathleen Blee’s study of women in the Klu
Klux Klan (Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s (Berkeley,
University of California Press: 2nd edition, 2008)) is a great example of the
potential for oral history. For a reflection on the challenges this project
presented, Blee’s thoughts on which are of much wider relevance, see: Kathleen
Blee, ‘Evidence, Empathy, and Ethics: Lessons from Oral Histories of the Klan,’
Journal of American History, 80, 2 (1993), 596-606. A version of this can be
found in the Perks and Thomson collection noted above.
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