Handbook of Oral History [Paperback]

This handbook is an inspired combination of the practical and the theoretical. An essential companion for anyone interested in the multifarious, cross-disciplinary research movement that has come to be known as 'oral history.'Given the range of academic disciplines embracing oral history, college and university libraries should give this book serious consideration. It belongs in the reference library of every oral history program.A simple conversation can be a key resource in gathering information about the pastyet obtaining, documenting, and preserving this information can be much more complicated. This compilation of essays by top historians dissects oral history, from its deeply rooted origins to its numerous modern applications.The editors set out to collect essays that could serve as an introduction to the contemporary practice and theory of oral history and succeeded in assembling a guide to the state of the field... The &ltHandbook for Oral History chapters were written expressly for this book and with its goals in mind, giving this anthology relative thematic coherence... Indeed, among the volume's many strengths is its tendency to promote and extend oral history's most theoretical and practical questions.Handbook of Oral History is...an essential purchase for oral historians in the United States....readers...will be stimulated by many insightful essays, and can take advantage of an excellent, consolidated bibliography.This handbook brings together some of the ablest oral historians to offer thoughtful, thorough, and timely assessments of their field. It belongs on the shelf of anyone seriously interested in the theory and practice of oral history.The editors set out to collect essays that could serve as an introduction to the contemporary practice and theory of oral history and succeeded in assembling a guide to the state of the field... The chapters were written expressly for this book and with its goals in mind, giving this anthology relative thematl#