Oral history

Oral history is an account of something passed down by word of mouth from one generation to another. Oral history is considered by some historians to be an unreliable source for the study of history. However, oral history is a valid means for preserving and transmitting history. Experience within literate cultures indicates that each time anyone reconstructs a memory, there are changes in the memory, but the core of the story is usually retained. Over time, however, minor changes can accumulate until the story becomes unrecognizable.

External links

• American Life Histories WPA Writers' Project 1936-1940 at Library of Congress (US)
• Center for Studies in Oral Tradition The center's mission is to facilitate communication across disciplinary boundaries by creating linkages among specialists in different fields. Through our various activities we try to foster conversations and exchanges about oral tradition that would not otherwise take place.
• My Recollection Self-selected memories (non-academics)
• Oral History Archives of World War II--Rutgers U
• Oral History Association (US)
• Oral History in the Teaching of U.S. History
• Oral History Online--Berkeley U (mostly California and the West)
• Oral History Society (GB)
• Techniques and Procedures of Oral History US Army Center of Military History
• Telling stories--Urban School of San Francisco (Holocaust narratives)
• The Whole World Was Watching Oral history of 1968 in US--Brown U
• World War II Submarine Veterans History Project California Center for Military History
• eTexts of oral history of former U.S. slaves collected in the 1930s by the WPA, at Project Gutenberg
• In the First Person A free index of more than 2,500 collections of oral history in English from around the world.
• The New Haven Oral History Project at Yale University.
• Life in the Model City: Stories of Urban Renewal in New Haven -- online oral history-based exhibit