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Reviews
The Oral History Manual
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By Barbara W. Sommer and Mary Kay Quinlan
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AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, Calif., 2002. Illustrations, bibliography, index. 144 pages. $70.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.
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Reviewed by Donna Sinclair
Oregon Historical Society and Portland State University
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| The Oral History Manual attempts to bridge the gap between theoretical treatments of oral history and practical guidebooks. In the preface, Barbara Sommer and Mary Kay Quinlan point out that no specific formula exists for oral history. Oral history projects are kaleidoscopic and thus dependent on project designers, interviewers, and narrators to shape them. Oral interviews have special value in making history come alive through the words of real people, with a process that is interactive but conducted within a defined structure. |
1
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Sommer and Quinlan define oral history as recorded interviews that use "a structured and well-researched interview outline, with a witness to or a participant in a historical event. Its aim is to collect and preserve the person's first-hand information and make it available to researchers. Careful attention to equipment selection, legal and ethical issues, and processing techniques characterize the oral history process" (p. 1). They model their manual on this definition, providing a how-to guide for mastering the techniques of oral history and methods for collecting and processing the audio results. |
2
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The main strength of the Oral History Manual is that it combines tools for effective planning and interviewing with multiple resources for further study and includes the significant Oral History Association evaluation guidelines. The authors focus on avoiding the most common problem with oral history projects — confusing the interview with the oral history process. A project's success is based on planning, processing, and the work of duplicating tapes, transcribing, and preparing materials for cataloging that follows. The best chapters are those on project organization, legal and ethical issues, and practical matters regarding interview preparation and techniques, transcription, and the process of working with a repository from start to finish — key elements in a well-conducted oral history interview. Too often, oral histories are collected without focus, organization, or, most important, follow through, which can result in interviews not being preserved. The authors also point out the many ethical dimensions of an oral history interview, which come down to two significant factors: historical integrity and responsibility to the narrator. |
3
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Quinlan and Sommer provide good, practical advice regarding the interview setting, interview techniques, and processing and care of oral histories. They deal with copyright issues, Internet distribution, interview equipment, project budgets, and research preparation. Notes at the end of each chapter provide excellent resources for each of the topics. They also provide appendices with forms for keeping a project organized and obtaining important information as well as a glossary of terms, a tremendously useful annotated bibliography, and an index. |
4
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One of the book's weaknesses is the chapter on the complexity of choosing equipment. In addition to a brief history of recording equipment, they wisely advise readers to work with a repository during the planning process. In light of their broad audience, however, the advice to use expensive, broadcast-quality equipment in all cases, both audio and video, is unrealistic. The recording technology section is really too complex and will soon be dated, yet it does not offer concrete recommendations based on financial circumstance. How can you conduct an oral history project and achieve good sound without spending a lot of money? The authors leave out one piece of simple advice — use a good microphone above all else. Realistic advice, in addition to the complex discussion of analog vs. digital and audio vs. video, would have improved the book, as would a section on organizing volunteers and a sample budget and overview of the time an oral history project entails. |
5
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This small book in some ways attempts to do too much. The authors raise important issues such as the limitations of memory, the value of oral history to disenfranchised groups, and its use in community building, but they do not have the space to address many of these themes well. The cover, an image of three white women of different generations, presents a far too conventional image of what oral history can do and may not appeal to the broad audience the authors seek. The strength of the Oral History Manual lies in practical advice, organizational overviews, and compilation of the important resources on which oral historians rely. The book was conceived "for general public use," but it both hits and misses its target (p. 82). For individuals who want to do a family history, the book is too complex. For small community or historical organizations, it would be a very useful resource, and the bibliography and appendices cannot be beat. |
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