source HOW TO DECONSTRUCT INTERVIEWS / ORAL HISTORY
The importance of oral history
In recent years oral history has emerged as a powerful means of recording and preserving the unique memories and life experiences of people whose stories might otherwise have been lost. It enables us to eavesdrop on events, feelings, attitudes and ways of life which have been hidden from history, and thus create a more vivid and accurate picture of our past.
In the first person: an index to letters, diaries, oral histories and personal narratives This database provides in-depth indexing of letters, diaries, oral histories and personal narratives in more than 2,500 collections of oral history, from seventeenth century letters and diaries to current material. The collections cover a broad range of subject areas which include narrator, subject, geographical location, format (full-text, video, audio), date, and other elements.
Oral histories of the First World War: veterans 1914-1918 This site has been created by Library and Archives Canada (LAC), in partnership with Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It is based on the CBC's radio broadcast In Flanders Fields, a series of interviews with veterans of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, which aired from November 11, 1964 to March 7, 1965. It provides free access to a collection of audio interviews with Canadian First World War servicemen. Topics covered include life in the trenches, the Battle of the Somme, Ypres and personal experiences of war.
Canadian Wartime Experience This site is maintained by the University of Manitoba. It provides free access to a collection of seeveral thousand digitised pimary source materials: such as documents, newspaper articles, letters, photographs and prints relating to the experience of Canada and Canadians during various wars from 1899-1970s. They include the Boer War (1899-1903); First World war (1914-1918), Second World war (1939-1945); Korean War (1950-1953) and Vietnam War (1957-1975). They cover information relating to military movements, battles and training well as oral history accounts from soldiers and servicemen/women.
Warsaw Uprising 1944 The Web Site "Warsaw Uprising 1944" is an educational resource in English published by the Project InPosterum, a non-profit organisation based in California.(witnesses) The brave attempt to liberate the Polish capital from Nazi occupation was a tragedy that arguably owed much to US, British, and especially Soviet indifference. As the Poles fought to the last men, women, and children in August and September 1944, the Germans destroyed a European allied capital. The debate has raged on in Polish circles as to whether the battle for Warsaw was foolhardy or an act of valour.
The war This is the official website of the War - a major documentary series relating to the Second World war which was directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick and broadcast by PBS. Its aim is to explore the history of World war II using the personal experiences of American citizens on the bttlefield and the home front. The website provides free access to a wealth of materials associated with the series. They include film clips, programme transcripts and photographs. These would be of great value to social historians as they include oral histories from American soldiers and personnel.
Canadian Wartime Experience This site is maintained by the University of Manitoba. It provides free access to a collection of seeveral thousand digitised pimary source materials: such as documents, newspaper articles, letters, photographs and prints relating to the experience of Canada and Canadians during various wars from 1899-1970s. They include the Boer War (1899-1903); First World war (1914-1918), Second World war (1939-1945); Korean War (1950-1953) and Vietnam War (1957-1975). They cover information relating to military movements, battles and training well as oral history accounts from soldiers and servicemen/women.
USC Shoah Foundation The USC Shoah Foundation is part of the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences at the University of Southern California. It maintains a collection of oral histories of holocaust survivors. Its website provides information on its aims and activities. It includes a collection of online taped testimonies from survivors of Nazi concentration camps. Also accessible is a large resource area for teachers. This includes its innovative video resources which integrate online oral history accounts with other learning activities. Topics covered include: the Holocaust through the eyes of child survivors,The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, surviving the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp.
Korea : recollections of the Korean war, 1950-1953 'Korea - Recollections of the Korean War, 1950-1953' is an online presentation from an oral history project from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, which interviewed British and Commonwealth Korean War veterans about their experiences (including troops from Britain, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa).
Freedom Fighters 56 This site is maintained by Lauer Learning, LLC and The Hungarian American Coalition (HAC). It is creating an online archive of oral histories and personal memories of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. This emphasises the courage of ordinary people of Hungary and political activists against the Soviet Union. The site also includes a background history of the 1956 events, plus links to related educational websites.
Civil Rights Oral History Interviews This site forms part of the Digital Collections of Washington State University. It provides access to a number of oral history recordings of individuals describing the American black civil rights movement of the 1960s. They were collected as part of a Spokesman Review series on Black history and include coverage of issues relating to civil rights protests, Martin Luther King and racial segregation in the American South.
Conversations with history was started in 1982 by Henry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. The aim of the series is to capture and preserve intellectual ideas by interviewing prominent figures about their lives and work. Conversations with History includes over 200 interviews which are being put onto the website in both text and video formats. Subjects for interview include diplomats, statesmen, soldiers, economists, political analysts, scientists, historians, writers, foreign correspondents, activists and artists.
