The following is a made-up interview I "conducted" with the website HistoryMatters.com to properly define "Oral History". The definitions are not my own but that of the website's author, Linda Shopes.
Emily: If you had to define oral history, what would you say it is?
History Matters: Well, if you really must know, there are a few definitions that I believe to be held true. My first idea is that it refers to formal, rehearsed accounts of the past presented by culturally sanctioned tradition-bearers. It is also an informal conversation about “the old days” among family members, neighbors, or coworkers. But besides that it is even printed compilations of stories told about past times and present experiences. And my last defintion is that it is recorded interviews with individuals deemed to have an important story to tell.
Emily: So basically what you are saying is that oral history is a compilation of interviews that tell a story?
History Matters: Oh yes, but it is much, much more than that! It dates back to the late 1930s and early 1940s when the FWP, Federal Writers Project, collected oral accounts of life histories. In early interviewing projects it tended to focus on the lives of the “elite” until the scope widened three to four decades later and the lives of “non-elites” were interviewed to gain a better understanding of the experiences of blue-collar workers, racial and ethnic minorities, etc.
Emily: I see, so do you have a narrowed definition for us?
History Matters: Oh, right, right, well, oral history might be defined as a dialogue between two people about some aspect of the past that would be considered of some sort of historical significance and deliberately recorded for record.
Emily: If you had to define oral history, what would you say it is?
History Matters: Well, if you really must know, there are a few definitions that I believe to be held true. My first idea is that it refers to formal, rehearsed accounts of the past presented by culturally sanctioned tradition-bearers. It is also an informal conversation about “the old days” among family members, neighbors, or coworkers. But besides that it is even printed compilations of stories told about past times and present experiences. And my last defintion is that it is recorded interviews with individuals deemed to have an important story to tell.
Emily: So basically what you are saying is that oral history is a compilation of interviews that tell a story?
History Matters: Oh yes, but it is much, much more than that! It dates back to the late 1930s and early 1940s when the FWP, Federal Writers Project, collected oral accounts of life histories. In early interviewing projects it tended to focus on the lives of the “elite” until the scope widened three to four decades later and the lives of “non-elites” were interviewed to gain a better understanding of the experiences of blue-collar workers, racial and ethnic minorities, etc.
Emily: I see, so do you have a narrowed definition for us?
History Matters: Oh, right, right, well, oral history might be defined as a dialogue between two people about some aspect of the past that would be considered of some sort of historical significance and deliberately recorded for record.
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