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The Oral History Reader
3rd edition
By: Alistair Thomson (Editor), Robert Perks (Editor)
Paperback | 17 November 2015 | Edition Number 3
At a Glance
744 Pages
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24.5 x 17 x 4
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Arranged in five thematic sections, each with an introduction by the editors to contextualise the selection and review relevant literature, articles in this collection draw upon diverse oral history experiences to examine issues including:
- Key debates in the development of oral history over the past seventy years
- First hand reflections on interview practice, and issues posed by the interview relationship
- The nature of memory and its significance in oral history
- The practical and ethical issues surrounding the interpretation, presentation and public use of oral testimonies how oral history projects contribute to the study of the past and involve the wider community.
- The challenges and contributions of oral history projects committed to advocacy and empowerment
About the Authors
Robert Perks is Lead Curator of Oral History and Director of National Life Stories at the British Library, Secretary of the UK Oral History Society and an editor of Oral History Journal. He has served as a Council Member of the International Oral History Association.
Alistair Thomson is Professor of History at Monash University. His previous publications include: Anzac Memories: Living With the Legend (1994 and 2013), Ten Pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants (2005, with Jim Hammerton), Moving Stories: an intimate history of four women across two countries (2011) and Oral History and Photography (2011, with Alexander Freund).
Industry Reviews
Praise of this edition:
"The Oral History Reader continues to be an invaluable resource for students and teachers of oral history, covering a broad range of themes and providing a comprehensive source of theoretical and practical information for, and from, oral historians around the globe."
Sue Anderson, University of South Australia and President of Oral History Australia
"The first two editions of the Oral History Reader have been a key text for successive generations of oral history students and practitioners. The thoroughly updated third edition will have the same essential status with today's interviewers. Comprehensively covering all aspects of oral history theory and practice, Perks and Thomson ensure that the classics of oral history writing sit side by side with the best of contemporary scholarship."
Andrew Flinn, University College London, UK
"An accessible text suitable for any university-level oral history course, The Oral History Reader condenses oral history's full complexity through a range of articles, some classics in the field, others pushing new boundaries. All ask provocative questions that will engender important discussion and critical debate, and will well prepare students who venture out into the field."
Elise Chenier, Simon Fraser University, Canada
"I would recommend this functional and thought-provoking collection to all who are interested in refreshing their own oral history work as well as to those looking to introduce the basics and the nuances of oral history in a higher-education classroom."
Sarah Milligan, Oral History Review
Praise of previous editions:
'This is the book I've been waiting for: a fat, stimulating and carefully selected and edited collection of significant contributions on oral history theory and practice....I recommend it to anyone embarking on or already immersed in the challenges, delights and stimulation of oral history work' - Oral History
'It provides a rich resource for oral history students, practitioners and researchers in diverse settings. And it offers more traditional historians another powerful perspective on history' - Social History of Medicine
'By far the most comprehensive, valuable collection of articles on the topic in the English language...Their historical sweep, from some of the earliest pieces on interviewing to the recent explorations of the use of new technology, offer something to both the novice and the seasoned practitioner...The remarkable collection is a boon to students and teachers alike' - Sherna Berger Gluck, Oral History Program California State University, Long Beach
'Such a clever and well-informed selection... The Oral History Reader 2006 is an affirmation that second (and subsequent editions) are important... This second edition of The Oral History Reader will certainly remain a prescribed text for my students and essential reading for anyone interested in oral history.' Janis Wilton, Oral History
'Oral history sits at the frontiers of the disciplines and activities that it traverses and as such, does keep pushing boundaries, and that pushing is well represented here.' Janis Wilton, Oral History 2007
The Oral History Reader, in its second edition, is more than a sampling of the field; the organization, introduction and selections policy will influence that way oral history develops in this new century'. Valerie Yow, OUP Journal
'This book has depth as well as breadth... Each section contains articles remarkable for insights and spurs to thinking. I whole-heartedly recommend the Oral History Reader both to the seasoned practitioner ahead of current thinking in the field of oral history and also to the instructor considering adopting this inclusive and stimulating text for newcomers to oral history.' - The Oral History Review
Praise of this edition:
"The Oral History Reader continues to be an invaluable resource for students and teachers of oral history, covering a broad range of themes and providing a comprehensive source of theoretical and practical information for, and from, oral historians around the globe."
Sue Anderson, University of South Australia and President of Oral History Australia
"The first two editions of the Oral History Reader have been a key text for successive generations of oral history students and practitioners. The thoroughly updated third edition will have the same essential status with today's interviewers. Comprehensively covering all aspects of oral history theory and practice, Perks and Thomson ensure that the classics of oral history writing sit side by side with the best of contemporary scholarship."
Andrew Flinn, University College London, UK
"An accessible text suitable for any university-level oral history course, The Oral History Reader condenses oral history's full complexity through a range of articles, some classics in the field, others pushing new boundaries. All ask provocative questions that will engender important discussion and critical debate, and will well prepare students who venture out into the field."
Elise Chenier, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Praise of previous editions:
'This is the book I've been waiting for: a fat, stimulating and carefully selected and edited collection of significant contributions on oral history theory and practice....I recommend it to anyone embarking on or already immersed in the challenges, delights and stimulation of oral history work' - Oral History
'It provides a rich resource for oral history students, practitioners and researchers in diverse settings. And it offers more traditional historians another powerful perspective on history' - Social History of Medicine
'By far the most comprehensive, valuable collection of articles on the topic in the English language...Their historical sweep, from some of the earliest pieces on interviewing to the recent explorations of the use of new technology, offer something to both the novice and the seasoned practitioner...The remarkable collection is a boon to students and teachers alike' - Sherna Berger Gluck, Oral History Program California State University, Long Beach
'Such a clever and well-informed selection... The Oral History Reader 2006 is an affirmation that second (and subsequent editions) are important... This second edition of The Oral History Reader will certainly remain a prescribed text for my students and essential reading for anyone interested in oral history.' Janis Wilton, Oral History
'Oral history sits at the frontiers of the disciplines and activities that it traverses and as such, does keep pushing boundaries, and that pushing is well represented here.' Janis Wilton, Oral History 2007
The Oral History Reader, in its second edition, is more than a sampling of the field; the organization, introduction and selections policy will influence that way oral history develops in this new century'. Valerie Yow, OUP Journal
'This book has depth as well as breadth... Each section contains articles remarkable for insights and spurs to thinking. I whole-heartedly recommend the Oral History Reader both to the seasoned practitioner ahead of current thinking in the field of oral history and also to the instructor considering adopting this inclusive and stimulating text for newcomers to oral history.' - The Oral History Review
Half Title Page
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction to the third edition
Part I Critical developments Introduction
1 Black History, Oral History and Genealogy
2 The Voice of The Past Oral history
3 Oral History and Hard Times A review essay
4 What Makes Oral History Different
5 Politics and Praxis in Canadian Working-Class Oral History
6 ‘Listening in the Cold' The practice of oral history in an Argentine working-class community
7 What Remains Reflections on crisis oral history
8 Oral History and the Senses
9 ‘I Just Want to Click on it to Listen' Oral history archives, orality and usability
Part II Interviewing
10 Interviewing an Interviewer
11 Interviewing Techniques and Strategies
12 Learning to Listen Interview techniques and analyses
13 Remembering in Groups Negotiating between ‘individual' and ‘collective’ memories
14 Interviewing the Women of Phokeng Consciousness and gender, insider and outsider
15 Issues in Cross-Cultural Interviewing Japanese women in England
16 Reticence in Oral History Interviews
17 Toward an Ethics of Silence? Negotiating off-the-record events and identity in oral history
18 Imaging Family Memories My Mum, her photographs, our memories
19 Interviewing in Business and Corporate Environments Benefits and challenges
Part III Interpreting memories
20 Remembering Survival Inside a Nazi slave-labor camp
21 Surviving Memory Truth and inaccuracy in Holocaust testimony
22 Remembering a Vietnam War Firefight Changing perspectives over time
23 Anzac Memories Putting popular memory theory into practice in Australia
24 Private Life in Stalin's Russia Narratives, memory and oral history
25 Memory Work in java A cautionary tale
26 Sex, ‘Silence' and Audiotape Listening for female same-sex desire in Cuba
27 ‘That's not What I Said' Interpretative conflict in oral narrative research
28 Evidence, Empathy and Ethics Lessons from oral histories of the Klan
29 Remembering and Reworking Emotions The reanalysis of emotion in an interview
Part IV Making histories
30 Voice, Ear and Text Words, meaning and transcription
31 Editing Oral History for Publication
32 The Affective Power of Sound Oral history on radio
33 Foundling Voices Placing oral history at the heart of an oral history exhibition
34 Co-Creating our Story Making a documentary film
35 The Historical Hearing Aid Located oral history from the listener's perspective
36 Mapping Memories of Displacement Oral history, memoryscapes and mobile methodologies
Part V Advocacy and empowerment
37 Imagining Communities Memory, loss and resilience in post-apartheid Cape Town
38 Sound, Memory and Dis/Placement Exploring sound, song and performance as oral history in the southern African borderlands
39 ‘You Hear it in Their Voice' Photographs and cultural consolidation among Inuit youths and elders
40 ‘We Know What the Problem is' Using video and radio oral history to develop collaborative analysis of homelessness
41 Trying to be Good Lessons in oral history and performance
42 Oral History and New Orthodoxies Narrative accounts in the history of learning disability
43 The Limits of Oral History Ethics and methodology amid highly politicized research settings
Select bibliography
Useful contacts
Index
ISBN: 9780415707336
ISBN-10: 0415707331
Series: Routledge Readers in History
Published: 17th November 2015
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number of Pages: 744
Audience: College, Tertiary and University
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Country of Publication: GB
Edition Number: 3
Edition Type: New edition
Dimensions (cm): 24.5 x 17 x 4
Weight (kg): 1.34
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This product is categorised by
- Non-FictionHistorySpecific Events & Topics in HistoryOral History
- Non-FictionHistoryEarliest Times to Present Day20th Century History from 1900 to 2000
- Non-FictionHistoryHistory Theory & MethodsHistoriography
- Non-FictionHistoryGeneral & World History
- Text BooksHigher Education & Vocational TextbooksHistory Higher Education Textbooks