What Is Oral History?

“The inside story of ordinary people’s lives is not often found in the library. Yet ordinary people possess a vast amount of information and a wealth of detail that is never committed to writing. Oral history is one means of correcting the historical bias that favors ‘great men.’ Oral histories tell us vividly, at first hand, about people’s lives, their work, their upbringing, and the perceptions. The written records of historians and institutions may contain the right dates, but they can never reconstruct with equal intimacy the lives of people and how they feel about what happens to them.”

—    Helen M. Lewis, Community History,
OAH Magazine of History, Vol, 11, No. 3, Oral History
Published by Oxford University Press
on behalf of Organization of American Historians

Simply put, oral history is storytelling.

It’s a tool historians use to learn about a specific event, time, or place. By interviewing people who can share their experiences related to that topic, we gain insight and discover different points of view. With the information collected, we can corroborate what has been written already or discover nuances that hadn’t been considered previously. The narratives are also used for further study, debate, and analysis which results in a deeper understanding of a particular period in our history.