Oral History as a Historical Methodology

What follows are sources that educators, historians and oral history practicioners have found most useful. Please note that URLs do change and material is sometimes removed from the World Wide Web. If you would like to suggest additions to this list e-mail the project coordinator (gwhitman@saes.org).

Allen, Barbara, and William L. Montell. From Memory to History: Using Oral Sources in Local Historical Research. Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History. 1981.

American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) Technical Leaflet #191, "Using Oral History in Museums," by Barbara Allen Bogart. Included in History News, 50, no. 4 (Autumn 1995).

Baum, Willa K.  Oral History for the Local Historical Society.  Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1987.

------.  Transcribing and Editing Oral History.  Nashville, Tenn.: American Association for State and Local History, 1977.

Bartis, Peter. Folklife and Fieldwork: A Layman's Introduction to Field Techniques. Publications of the American Folklife Center, no. 3. First printed 1979; revised 1990; 2002.

Berliner, Alan.  Nobody's Business. Director Alan Berliner. 60 minutes. Milestone Films, 1996. (Video)

Dunaway, David K., and Willa  J. Baum, eds.  Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology 2^nd edition.  Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1997.

Everett, Stephen E. Oral History: Techniques and Procedures. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History United States Army, 1992.

A Field Notebook for Oral History. Boise: Idaho Oral History Center, 1997.

Frank, Benis M. A Do-It-Yourself, Oral History Primer. History and Museums Division Headquarters, United States Marine Corps Washington, D.C., 20374. 1982 Reprint 1985, 1996. Available at http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/oralusmc.htm.

Frisch, Michael.  A Shared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning of Oral History and Public History.  Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.

Georges, Robert A. and Michael Owen Jones. People Studying People: The Human Element in Fieldwork. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1980.

Gluck, Sherna Berger, Donald A. Ritchie and Bret Eynon. "Reflections on Oral History in the New Millennium: Roundtable Comments." Oral History Review 26, no. 2 (Summer/Fall, 1999): 1-27.

Green, Anna. "Returning History to the Community: Oral History in a Museum Setting." The Oral History Review 24, no. 2 (Winter 1997): 53-67.

Grele, Ronald J., ed. Envelopes of Sound:  The Art of Oral History.  New York: Praeger, 1991.

Hardy III, Charles and Alessandro Portelli. "I Can Almost See the Lights of Home ~A Field Trip to Harlan County, Kentucky." The Journal for MultiMedia History 2 (1999). Available at http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/lights.html.

Herstory: An Oral History Handbook for Collecting Military Women's Stories. Women's Memorial Foundation. Available at http://www.womensmemorial.org/historyandcollections/oralhistory.html.

Hudson, Larry E. and Durrigan Santora, Ellen "Oral History: An Inclusive Highway to the Past." The History Teacher 36, no. 2 (February 2003): 210.

Ives, Edward D. An Oral Historian's Work. Blue Hill Falls, ME: Northeast Historic Film, 1987. 33 minutes, color. Distributed by Northeast Historic Film, P.O. Box 900, Bucksport, ME 04416.

------.The Tape Recorded Interview: A Manuel for Fieldworkers in Folklore and Oral History. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.  

Kyvig, David, and Myron Marty. Nearby History, 3rd ed. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2000.

McMahan, Eva and Kim Lacy Rogers, eds. Interactive Oral History Interviewing. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1994.

Mercier, Laurie and Madeline Buckendorf. Using Oral History in Community History Projects.  Los Angeles, CA: Oral History Association, Pamphlet No. 4. 1992.

Moyer, Judith. A Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History. 1993. Revised 1999. Available at http://www.dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html.

Neuenschwander, John N. Oral History and the Law.  3^rd ed. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Oral History, 2002.

Oral History Association. Evaluation Guidelines. Available at http://omega.dickinson.edu/organizations/oha/.

Perks, Robert and Alistair Thomson eds. The Oral History Reader. New York: Routledge, 1998.

Perdue, Thesda. Nations Remembered: An Oral History of the Five Civilized Tribes, 1865-1907. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1980.

Portelli, Alessandro. The Battle of Valle Giulia: Oral History and the Art of Dialogue. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997.

------. The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.

------.The Order Has Been Carried Out: History, Memory, and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Ritchie, Donald A. Doing Oral History 2^nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Rosenzweig, Roy, and David Thelen. The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.

Shopes, Linda. "Making Sense of Oral History." History Matters: The U.S. Survey on the Web. Available at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/.

Slim, Hugo and Paul Thompson. Listening for a Change: Oral Testimony and Community Development. Philadelphia:  New Society Publishers. 1995.

Sommer, Barbara W. and Mary Kay Quinlan. The Oral History Manual. California: AltaMira Press (AASLH), 2002.

Suquamish Oral History Project. A Guide for Oral History in the Native American Community, 3^rd ed. Suquamish: Suquamish Tribal cultural Center, 2000.

Stricklin, David, and Rebecca Sharpless, eds. The Past Meets the Present: Essays on Oral History. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. 1988.

Terkel, Studs. My American Century. New York: The New Press, 1997.

'Thinking About Doing Oral History? Here's How" Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, Inc. Available at http://www.womensmemorial.org/historyandcollections/oralhistory.html.

Thompson, Paul.  The Voice of the Past: Oral History.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1988.

Truesdell, Dr. Barbara. "Oral History Techniques: How to Organize and Conduct Oral History Interviews." Indiana University Oral History Research Center. 1999. Available at http://www.indiana.edu/~cshm/

United States Holocaust Museum, "Oral History Interview Guidelines." Available at http://www.ushmm.org/archives/oralhist.pdf.

Woodward, C. Vann. "History from Slave Sources." The American Historical Review 79 (April 1974): 470-481.

Yow, Valerie. ""Do I Like Them Too Much?": Effects of the Oral History Interview on the Interviewer and Vice-Versa." Oral History Review 24, no.1 (Summer 1997): 55-79.

------. Recording Oral History:  A Practical Guide for Social Scientists. Beverly Hills, California: Sage 1994.