Abstract:
Oral narrative is a unique and valuable form of primary historical resource. Oral history interviews provide researchers the rare opportunity to learn about society, culture, and history from individuals’ actual experiences. Details, such as tone, emotion, and sometimes even body language, express a distinct perspective of an event, person, or situation that can often be interpreted an infinite number of ways. Such details help to reveal hidden information and fill gaps in the material historical record by providing a context and interpretation, complementing existing text, photographs, and other physical historical resources to create a comprehensive historical picture.
