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History Foundation – Oral History Essay
How can memories revealed in interviews years after the event be of use to the historian?
Memories are the experiences of those who have lived through history.1 Deciding how best
to use those gathered through interviews is a key question for historians as they, like written
documents, can be liable to mislead as much as they can provide an answer to a question.2
Consequently they should both be taken seriously and, at the same time, not considered to be
primarily a factual source – an archive is better suited for that. Instead, the role of memories is more
to fill in the gaps and weaknesses in recorded documents, as Paul Thompson argues,3 or to recreate
the past, rather than explain it – according to John Tosh.4 Green and Troup, on the other hand, feel
that the primary purpose of memories is to provide a voice for social groups that have been denied
one in the past,5 whilst Al Thompson puts forward the idea that memories are more useful for what
they do not tell as what they do – providing a starting point for further investigation.6 These are just
four views on how we should use the memories of those who have experienced the past and they
barely scratch the surface. How memories revealed in interviews can be of use to historians is not as
simple a question as it first appears to be.
Green and Troup, in their book The Houses of History, propose that information gathered
through the oral tradition can be of use to the historian through it providing a voice to social groups
that have previously been neglected in history – such as women, the working class and ethnic
minorities7. However, they also acknowledge that these experiences will often be tainted by
subjectivity or elaborated through the system of memory.8 Elaboration can be particularly
problematic for historians; personal prejudice or favouritism can lead to certain aspects or sects of
society being given greater or lesser importance. However, discovering why certain aspects of the
1
P. Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral History, 2nd ed. (Oxford 1988) p. 148
Ibid p. 104
3
Ibid p. 133
4
J. Tosh, The Pursuit of History, 4th ed. (Edinburgh 2006) pp. 333-4
5
A. Green and K. Troup, The Houses of History, (Manchester 1999) p. 230
6
A. Thompson, Anzac Memories: Putting Popular Memory Theory into Practice in Australia, appearing in: A.
Green and K. Troup, The Houses of History (Manchester 1999) p. 243
7
Green and Troup, The Houses of History, p. 230
8
Ibid pp. 230-1
2
1
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History Foundation – Oral History Essay
past have been altered in significance by memory can be incredibly useful, giving the historian an
idea of how the interviewee has been influenced by society. In particular, finding a voice for
previously ‘oppressed’ social groups through oral history allows the historian to build a broader
image of society and its reaction to events in. Furthermore, it allows for the creation of a variety of
different records for future generations to use when studying our generation, helping them to build
a clearer picture of how life was up, down and across the social scale. It seems logical that this would
allow for our time to be better understood in the future than any other point in the past. That said, it
is also worth considering that the questions posed by historians vary from generation to generation
and that what we record today, particularly through the oral tradition, might have little or no use to
historians in a hundred years time. In this sense, memories obtained through interviews are only of
use to a historian in so much as that they are related to the questions that he or she wishes to
answer.9
Linking to elaboration and the idea of how people can prioritise the past, memories revealed
through interviews can also be as much use for what they simply do not tell as for what they do. Al
Thomson, in his article on the Anzacs in Australia, points towards how his interviewee found it hard,
sometimes only initially, to discuss certain aspects of his past. Many of these memories were too
painful to go over, or would have been damaging to the interviewee’s mental state.10 He attributes
this to the theory of private and public memory, whereby we compose our memories in such a way
so as to suit the identity that we wish to put forward, along with the act of suppression or neglect of
memories that we find too painful to discuss or relive.11 Not only did his interviews with Anzac
veterans help to confirm this theory, which then allows him to conduct further interviews from a
firm starting point, it also gave him suitable material from which he was able to construct a valid
academic article. The areas of the past that his interviewee was unwilling to discuss also provided
fresh points from which to make further investigations into the history of the Anzacs; if he wished,
9
Thompson, The Voice of the Past, p. 21
Thompson, Anzac Memories, appearing in Green and Troupe, The Houses of History, p. 243
11
Ibid pp. 240-1
10
2
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History Foundation – Oral History Essay
Thompson would be able to seek out other survivors who might be able to fill in the gaps. In doing
so, it could then be possible to pinpoint why, exactly, some survivors found particular memories too
difficult to recount. In this sense, memories gained from interviews are akin to the results gathered
through a scientific experiment; they allow the historian to make predictions and theories, to gather
data and to then test the data against their ideas. Oral history, in particular, provides a very random
sample of experiences and memories which, where appropriate, can be synthesised with other
information to allow for the creation of a more rounded image of the past than would otherwise be
possible.
Looking at the past retrospectively through interviews with prominent figures can shed new
light on events and help historians to understand why certain decisions were made. A very recent
example of this comes from Tony Blair, who confessed that he would have invaded Iraq six years ago
even if he had known that there were no weapons of mass destruction present, believing that the
country would not be “better” with Saddam and his two sons in charge.12 Interviews such as this
have both an immediate social impact and a long term historical impact, both of which can be of use
to a historian. In the short term, Tony Blair’s interview will shape a lot of contemporary literature
regarding the decision to invade Iraq, whilst in the longer term it will provide a point of analysis for
any historian researching the beginnings of the war in Iraq. This sort of government-related
information is often not readily available to historians and might never even make it into an archive,
making interviews such as this a useful tool for historians looking to understand how and why
certain crucial decisions were made. It is therefore unwise to underestimate the value of oral history
and the memories of the people who were involved in important events; to treat interviews as just
‘one more document’ is to ignore their value as a spoken testimony.13
The memories of interviewees can be of particular use to a historian, more so than archival
records, because of their specificity and focus; an interviewee is deliberately chosen and the
12
13
3
The Guardian, 12 Dec. 2009
Thompson, The Voice of the Past, p. 101
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History Foundation – Oral History Essay
interviewer is able to chose precisely which questions to ask in order to find out what he or she
wants to know. This element of choice can aid in uncovering otherwise unknown information, whilst
carefully selecting interviewees who might be likely to possess documents or artefacts that are of
use to the study can give any findings greater validity and depth.14 However, along with the
aforementioned issues of subjectivity and the mechanisms of memory, there is the issue that
historians might try to ‘choose’ what they find; interviewing people who they believe might provide
a certain type of answer that fits in with their own arguments and beliefs. Oral history can transform
the content and purpose of history, which can lead to a coloured or impure version of history.15
When using the memories gathered through interviews, historians need to be aware of the
potential, whether intentional or otherwise, for misrememberance. There is also the danger of
relying too heavily on a single interview for information; as with any source, their validity is limited
unless they are blended and combined with other sources, be they further interviews or archival
evidence. This helps to produce a more balanced account of the past. There is, therefore, a danger
of memoires almost being overvalued and over-depended on as a source of information for
historians.
Eric Hobsbawm, in his book On History, dismisses the oral tradition as a ‘personal memory
which is a remarkably slippery medium for preserving facts.’16 Paul Thompson agrees, noting the
negative impacts of ‘misrememberance’ and exaggeration, how the presence of an interviewer can
stimulate these flaws and how oral history is anecdotal, therefore unrepresentative of anyone
beyond the interviewee in question.17 However, whilst these critiques are justified in that some oral
history is not representative of the empirical past, these flaws are just as apparent in much written
history, which have similar issues with bias and omission.18 With this is mind, it seems unfair to use
14
R. Perks and A. Thompson, The Oral History Reader (New York 1998), p. 24
Ibid p. 22
16
E. Hobsbawm, On History (London 1997) p. 206
17
Thompson, The Voice of the Past, pp. 77-81
18
P. Summerfield, ‘Culture and Composure: Creating Narratives of the Gendered Self in Oral History
Interviews’, Cultural and Social History 1 (2004) 66
15
4
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Hobsbawm’s label for oral history. It seems more logical to suggest that oral history needs to be
treated in much the same way as any other form of historical data; it needs to be analysed, sourced
and synthesised with other records in order to ascertain legitimacy and accuracy. All things
considered, the use of oral history is on a par with any other source – even if the possibility for
inaccuracy, through ‘misrememberance’ or exaggeration, is more acute than with written sources.
Furthermore, memories from key individuals at important points in the past, such as the confessions
in the Nuremburg Trials in 1945-6 from Martin Bormann and Rudolf Hess, will often come in the
form of oral history transcripts and to dismiss these would be to pass over the opportunity to
broaden our understanding of the past.
John Tosh believes that historians should use oral history to recreate the past as it was,
rather than to try to explain it.19 He feels that memories can add a human factor to the masses of
archival data;20 that they can help to recover the everyday experiences of life.21 Paul Thompson
agrees on this point, stating how memories represent the social perceptions of events in history.22
This idea of restoring the human reality to the empiricism of archival data helps the historian to
produce a more rounded view of the past, creating an image which encompasses a broad range of
views. Particularly pertinent to this idea is Green and Troup’s concept of oral history bringing a voice
to those who have previously been denied one.23 In this sense, memories allow the historian to
create a picture of life up, down and across the social scale – something which has not always been
possible in the past due to censorship and the dismissal of the oral tradition, which resulted in little
being recorded.24 Using memories in this way; to fill in the gaps of, to supplement and to build on
archival data, as Paul Thompson states, allows the historian to create a more diverse and broad
19
Tosh, The Pursuit of History, pp. 333-4
Ibid p. 333
21
Ibid p. 342
22
Thompson, The Voice of the Past, p. 106
23
Green and Troup, The Houses of History, p. 230
24
Thompson, The Voice of the Past, p. 111
20
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History Foundation – Oral History Essay
account of the past.25 This style of history is then more beneficial for future generations looking back
upon the periods that have been recorded in this way; it is a history with the potential to encompass
a broad social image. However, the accuracy of this picture is wholly dependent on the quality of
material left behind – as is the case with archival data. If interviews are recorded poorly with a
dearth of context around them (for example, details of the interviewee) then their use is
immediately restricted, reducing the ways in which historians can apply them.
In conclusion, the range of arguments put forward in the literature for the use of memories,
from them being a mere facet of history which cannot be fully trusted and, therefore useful, to them
being a key factor in constructing a view of the past, suggests a lack of a general consensus on how
exactly we should use oral history. However, there does seem to be a definite element of agreement
that memories can be used to build a more three dimensional picture of the past than would be
otherwise possible by using purely archival data. Furthermore, there is a consistent idea that
memories are useful in re-creating the past, more so than archival data – which is better used to
explain it. Therefore, it would be fair to conclude that memories revealed in interviews are as useful
to the historian in so far as they, like any other source, provide an answer to the questions which
they wish to ask. In addition, memories can provide a totally different range of answers to an
archive, giving the historian another way in which to approach the past. Finally, on the issue of
retrospective subjectivity in oral history as a potential drawback, we can only object to it if we want
to eject those who lived through history from any part in assessing it. In the words of Paul
Thompson: “'We could not have presumed that parents did not suffer deeply from the deaths of
their children, just because child death was so common, without asking.”26
Word Count: 2107
25
26
6
Thompson, The Voice of the Past, p. 133
Ibid p. 148
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History Foundation – Oral History Essay
Bibliography
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7
Green A. and Troup K., The Houses of History (Manchester 1999)
Hobsbawm E., On History (London 1997)
Perks R. and Thompson A., The Oral History Reader (New York 1998)
Summerfield P., ‘Culture and Composure: Creating Narratives of the Gendered Self in Oral
History Interviews’, Cultural and Social History 1 (2004) 65-93
Thompson A., Anzac Memories: Putting Popular Memory Theory into Practice in Australia,
appearing in: Green A. and Troup K., The Houses of History (Manchester 1999), pp. 239-252
Thompson P., The Voice of the Past: Oral History, 2nd ed. (Oxford 1988)
Tosh J., The Pursuit of History, 4th ed. (Edinburgh 2006)