Synopses & Reviews
Now in a new edition, this influential book traces oral history through its own past and weighs up the recent achievements of this international movement. Paul Thompson challenges myths of historical scholarship and looks closely at the use of oral sources by historians. He offers advice on designing a project; discusses reliability of oral evidence; considers the context of the development of historical writing including its social function; and looks at memory, the self and the use of drama and therapy. This new edition has been substantially revised and updated and includes an expanded discussion of narrative approaches and looks at new technology used in the recording of information.
Review
"[This] revised edition of a revered, pioneering work on the discipline, objective, techniques and value of oral history...offers the reader a new discussion of 'subjectivity', psychoanalysis and therapy. It is a masterful account that should be widely read by historians, sociologists and folklorists....A significant contribution to cultural documentation."--
Come-All-YePraise for the first edition: "The first book to combine a theory of oral history, the technical processes involved, and a road map of where oral evidence fits into the landscape of western historiography."--American Historical Review
"Belongs in every university, high school, and public library."--Teaching History
"Timely, provocative and helpful."--History
"A wonderful achievement that students find enormously useful."--Michael Gordon, niv. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Review
On the second edition: "Paul Thompson is a passionate and convincing crusader in the cause of oral history" --The Times Educational Supplement
"It must be rare in modern academic life to replace your own unrivalled book after 10 years with an even better one, but he has done so. His new material on memory and the self, and on drama as therapy, should be read by literary critics in their infancy."--The Independent
"The first book to combine a theory of oral history, the technical processes involved, and a road map of where oral evidence fits into the landscape of western historiography." --American Historical Review
Synopsis
In this new edition of a standard text on the subject, Paul Thompson argues that oral history, though largely neglected by conventional historians, can help to create a truer, more democratic picture of the past, documenting the lives and feelings of all types of people. In addition to tracing the development, theory, and practical methods of oral history, this edition includes many new examples and chapters, and an enlarged bibliography, bringing Thompson's work completely up to date.
About the Author
Paul Thompson is Director of the National Life Story Collection in London and founder-editor of
Oral History.
Table of Contents
History and the Community
Historians and Oral History
The Achievement of Oral History
Evidence
Memory and the Self
Projects
The Interview
Storing and Sifting
Interpretation: The Making of History
Further Reading and Notes
A Life-Story Interview Guide
Index