AN EXAMINATION OF ORAL HISTORY
According to Roger Arditti, the definition of oral history containsseveral important elements, one being that the individual and his socialexperience makes up a good portion of the content derived from "dictating"the past. Arditti also adds that oral history is "primarily concerned withgathering information about historical and social structures" while takinginto consideration the subjectivity of the historian/researcher ("SkillsProject"). Another definition for oral history, suggested by one ofArditti's contemporaries, concerns "an account of first-hand experiencerecalled retrospectively, communicated to an interviewer for historicalpurposes and preserved on a system of reproducible sound" ("SkillsProject"). However, as a device for relating the past, the oraltransmission of history, as contrasted with documented sources on paper orin books, is subject to much alteration and fabrication. James Hoopessupports this by addressing the fact that "the historical record is alwaysincomplete. Imagination must fill in the gaps in our knowledge, though ofcourse, our imaginings must derive from facts and be consistent with them" In addition, the "tradition" of oral history has its origins in t
I finally got 25 cents anhour, but he raised the board to seventy-five cents a day" ("Hard Times"). Aprime example is An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln in which John G. For instance, all ofthe oral histories related to Herodotus concerning the Persians and theiruse of weaponry are blended together to arrive at a theory or hypothesisabout how the Persians won such and such a battle or managed to capture somany prisoners. The various ways in which oral history can be collected can best beexpressed by usingthe oral history methods of Herodotus and Thucydides as a model. Although these examples of oral history are confined to the pages ofa document or a book, most of those conducted since the mid 1940's,especially after World War II, have beensaved on electronic sources, such as phonograph albums, magnetic tape orvideotape. Likewise, Thucydides might gather up all of the oralhistories and come to a conclusion about the true outcome of a battleduring the Peloponnesian Wars. as a quarry fromwhich to construct an argument" (Arditti, Internet). The firstway involves relatingone's life story to an interviewer, "a single life narrative (presented as)one individual biography" which at times can be "used to convey the historyof a whole class or community" Arditti, Internet); an example of this wouldbe an interview by Herodotus with perhaps one person who experienced and/orrepresents his community concerning a particular aspect or event in anynumber of Greek wars. In this book, Terkel takes the reader on a personal tour of the GreatDepression via his recollections andmemories pertaining to the "Hard Times" of the early 1930's in America andthose of other participants. Terkel makes it a point to separate therecollections between those who were there and those who were not. Similarly, Thucydides, one of Herodotus' contemporaries, includedversions of direct speeches, being oral histories, into his descriptions ofthe events concerning the Peloponnesian Wars. Through this style, Herodotus quickly discovered that, as acomponent of historical investigation, the inclusion of oral histories inany study of other cultures was of vital importance.
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Acceptance Essays
