Donald Ritchie, “An Oral History
of Our Time,” Doing Oral History (2003)
1. Look at the definition of oral history. What is the difference between oral history and other types of history we have covered?
2. Thucydides complained that “different eye-witnesses give different accounts of the same events, speaking out of partiality for one side of the other or else from imperfect memories.” Explain.
3. Look at the Von Ranke quote at the bottom of page 20. Assess the quote.
4. Look at the sentence at the bottom of page 21 that starts, “Directed by Lt. Col. S.L.A. Marshall…”
Also look at the uses of oral history in Brazil and Argentina at the top of page 23.
How is oral history used differently from other histories?
5. “An interview becomes an oral history only when it has been recorded, processed in some way, made available in an archive.” (page 24) Assess this quote.
6. From page 26, “how reliable is the information gathered by oral history?” What are some problems with oral history evidence?
(page 33: “the view improves with distance”)
7. On page 36, what is the significance of the discussion of survivors and how they may be unwilling to discuss certain traumatic events?
8. What is the role of public history?
9. In the future, how might oral history make written history even better? (page 45)
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