Recording Oral History: A Practical Guide for Social Scientists

"Recording Oral History provides a comprehensive look at oral history methodology with references to a wide variety of practitioners. . . . Recording Oral History is as much concerned with theory as with practice and because it has value for anyone-humanist or social scientist-endeavoring to undertake an oral history interview or series of interviews."

--Joel R. Gardner in Oral History Review

"Recording Oral History. . . has value for anyone-humanist or special scientist-endeavoring to undertake an oral history interview or series of interviews. . . . This book reinforces the realization that we who practice oral history have many different objectives, and we comprise many types of interviewers interviewing many types of interviewees, so we must constantly reflect on what we do. We owe it to our interviewees to know as much as possible about what our colleagues are doing and thinking, so we can approach the task of interviewing with intelligence and purpose. This work helps light our way."

--Joel R. Gardner in Oral History Review

"Addresses contemporary issues in an accessible style and provides handy tips for developing a written interview guide, using tape recorders to ask probing questions, and editing transcriptions. The book improves the quality of even the most complete libraries. . . . Recording Oral History is a timely document, written in a style to insure longevity."

With extensive examples from both historical and social science literature, this book is a practical guide to methods of recording oral history. The author provides suggestions on a range of techniques from developing a written interview guide and using tape recorders to asking probing questions during in-depth interviews and editing transcriptions. She also covers the ethical and legal issues involved in conducting life-history interviews and elaborates on three different types of oral history projects: community studies, biographies and family histories.