ORAL HISTORY REPORT PROJECTS
Oral history report projects involve interviewing an individual, or group of individuals
who participated in or observed closely a particular episode in the historical past.
Oral history report projects involve more than just making a written copy of an
interview.
To begin, remember the "story" component of his-(s)tory!
An important reason to undertake an oral history project is a desire to personalize what
might otherwise be an impersonal description or analysis of an episode or significant
event in history. To make that personal remembrance important, the person's
participation or observation must be placed into a broader context, both with respect
to background and with respect to consequences.
If you have identified someone or a group of individuals who can speak with authority
from personal experience on an episode or event, before conducting an interview,
prepare yourself for it in at least 2 phases:
Phase 1
First: Read about the event or episode. Your reading should involve some
historical works, but may also include newspaper or magazine reports on the
subject.
Second: Take notes on what you have read, including relevant factual
information. (You may need to refer to these during the interview, so put them in
an orderly chronological or topical form.)
Third: Write a summary of the event or episode, one which may serve as the
basis for introducing the subject when you write your report and may also be
useful in writing your conclusion to the report with respect to the general
consequences of the event or episode.
Phase 2
Once you have a general but clear picture of the event or episode in your own mind,
begin to think about the actual interview you are going to direct.
First: obtain a tape recorder and practice using it to ask questions and record
answers. Make sure you are able to control 2 aspects of its use: that the way
you handle the tape recorder physically does not make it appear to be imposing
or threatening (you can't thrust a machine in the face of someone and expect that
person to respond naturally or to be able to concentrate on answering the
questions you pose), and that both your questions and the respondent's replies
project clearly onto the tape. If you don't practice with the tape recorder several
times, in different physical arrangements, you stand a good chance of having
problems with both of these potential difficulties.
Second: Write down the information you know about the inter- viewed (e.g.
name(s), approximate age at the time the event or episode occurred, occupation,
education, heritage, role the person(s) played in the event or episode, significant
experiences before, during, and after the event or episode). You must check
this information with the interviewee to make sure you have it correct. Then write
out the specific information about the person(s) you need to obtain in order to
show clearly in your report the relationship this person (or these people) has to
your subject, as well as to establish the validity of the observations you obtain in
the interview.
Third: Prepare a series of questions in advance that you feel you must have
answered in order to obtain a valid and useful observation from the person(s)
regarding the event or episode. The number and nature of these, of course, will
vary with the topic and the interviewee's involvement in it. Follow this with a
series of questions you can ask if your interviewee becomes nervous or has
difficulty remembering something you believe to be important to your story.
These should be worded in a gentle form and may involve supplying factual
information you have obtained in your own reading. If appropriate to the event
or episode you are studying, your questions should stimulate factual, analytical,
evaluative and impressionistic responses. You may also want to obtain
information on the person's feelings at the time, immediately after the time, and
today, in order to see if subsequent events or the passage of time have caused
the person to look at the experience in varying lights.
Force yourself to ask the questions out loud several times, both to learn how to control
your intent in the question's meaning and to place in your mind the questions you want
answered.
Conduct the interview. If you find that conditions are not par- ticularly favorable with
the initial interview, schedule a second interview.
Once you have concluded an interview, whether you intend to have another interview
or not, listen to the tape--more than once--and then take notes from the taped
interview. You need not write down the responses verbatim unless the emphasis or
character of the response is such that you believe the actual words spoken are vital to
an understanding of the person's perspective, analysis, or feel- ings.
After you have made your notes, read them over and listen to the interview again,
checking your notes with the spoken words to make sure you have done justice to the
interviewee and to the subject. Write your report. Start by setting the stage and placing
the event or episode in a broad context that is relevant to American history. Explain
how your interviewee's came to be involved, who the person is and why the person's
observations are both valid and important. Tell the person's story of involvement or
observation, including, where appropriate, the person's reactions at the time and today.
Draw up a summary or conclusion, including consequences where they are important.
End the report with an explanation of the event or episode's place in subsequent
general historical developments. (That "place in subsequent general historical
developments" may be obscure or relatively unimportant. If so, that does not diminish
from the importance of the event or episode to participants, either at the time or in later
years. Don't be concerned if you cannot show that the participants or observers were
involved in some powerful activity that had dramatic impact on subsequent national or
global developments.)
Type up your report, using generally accepted English, and citing significant books or
articles you used to prepare for the oral history exercise. Also include relevant vital
statistics on the person's) interviewed, not forgetting to put down the date and place of
the interview. Bibliography and notations on the interview and interviewee should be on
a separate sheet placed at the end of your report.
Turn in Two (2) copies of your 3 to 5 page typed report. One of these will be returned to you.
Your instructor will retain one copy.
Topics:
A. The Great Depression (1930s)
B. American Involvement in World War 11 (1941-45)
C. The McCarthy Scare (1950-54)
D. The Civil Rights Crusade (1960-68)
E. American Involvement in the Vietnam War (1961-73)
F. Student Protests Movement (1964-70)