Oral History Narrative Assignment

I. Step One: Choosing a Topic

You will want to choose a research topic that touches directly on the life experience of a family member. Although you may have relatives who can recall events from the first half of the 20th century, in most cases you will choose a topic in postwar American history. Some broad topics in this time period are listed below to provide you with a starting-point for your research project. If you are unable to make a choice, you might go over this list with a parent to find a topic that suits a particular family member. You might learn, for example, that a grand-uncle was active in the Civil Rights Movement, or that a cousin served in the Gulf War. Or the list might suggest a different topic about another member of the family who has plenty to say. At this stage, you should keep in mind that you are choosing a topic for conversation, not for a research paper. The topic should be broad enough to allow for wide-ranging discussion and a rich variety of memories, yet focused enough to give the interview a shape and direction. Too narrow a topic can turn an interview into an interrogation ("Where were you on the weekend of the Woodstock Festival?"). A more open-ended approach makes room for the unexpected and can lead to real discovery. Possible Topics in Postwar American History: 1950s The Cold War The Arms Race The Space Race The Civil Rights Movement Television: Sit-coms, Kid Shows, Sports, & Network News 1960s Youth Culture & Social Protest The Women's Movement The Vietnam War The Black Power Movement The Arab-Israeli Conflict 1970s Watergate The Energy Crisis The Environmental Movement The Malling of America The Computer Revolution

1980s The Gulf War Medical Breakthroughs: AIDS, Organ Transplants, & Genetics The Collapse of Communism in Europe Insurgency and Repression in Latin America The Struggle against Apartheid in South Africa II. Step Two: Background Research

Once you have selected a topic, you will conduct background research to become familiar with the basic facts behind the historical episode you plan to talk about. What people, places, and events figure prominently in this chapter of American history? What ideas and assumptions affected the climate of opinion at the time? Such information can help you develop pertinent interview questions and will prepare you both to contextualize the memories shared with you and to pursue lines of inquiry that may arise. In addition to library resources, such as encyclopedias, chronicles, timelines, and handbooks, you can research your topics using the internet. At the Internet Public Library

20th Century Precursors Links to key texts and background information on important authors and literature of the 1930s to the 1950s. The Psychedelic Sixties Extensive resources on the culture, politics, and temper of a turbulent decade. The History Channel Year-by-year timelines with links to capsule information on important people, concepts, issues, and events.

At Learner.Org

A Biography of America Profiles of the Fifties, the Sixties, and the closing decades of the 20th century, with links to additional web resources on topics in each time period.

Conversations With History Interviews with leading authorities on many aspects of postwar American foreign relations, as well as other social issues. We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement A virtual tour highlighting key events and personalities in the struggle for racial equality.

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Step Three: Planning Your Questions

Once you are familiar with your topic, you should be able to set a goal for your interview. What do you hope to find out through the memories your family member will share? This goal can be fairly specific (e.g., How did the family member react to the Watergate scandal and why?) or more general (e.g., What has been the family member's experience with computers over the course of his or her life?). You might even have several closely related goals. It is important, however, that you prepare for your interviews with some objective in mind, and frame questions designed to help you achieve it. You will need to state your interview goals in writing and then develop a list of at least ten questions that will help you gather the kind of historical information you are looking for. Below are guidelines for asking effective interview questions:

Avoid questions that invite a "yes" or "no" answer. Instead of "Did you support the Vietnam War?" ask "What were your feelings about the Vietnam War?" Avoid leading questions that suggest the response you want. Instead of "Wasn't it exciting when Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon?" ask "How did people react when Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon?" Ask open-ended questions that prompt a wide-ranging response. For example: "Tell me about your experiences during the Energy Crisis." or "What do you remember about the beginning of the Space Race?" Plan to ask follow-up questions that elicit specific details. Ask "where" and "when" questions to pin down an anecdote. Ask for examples to back up a general observation. And always be ready to ask "why?"

When you have completed your question lists, role-play interviews with another student inorder to test whether your questions are effective and easy to understand. I will also review your questions to assess whether they reflect factual knowledge of the topic, a clear objective for the interview, and an awareness of effective questioning methods. IV. Step 4: Conducting the Interview

We will review the checklist, in class, discussing any points that raise questions. Use this opportunity to arrange to borrow a tape recorder from a classmate, if you do not own one. If tape recorders are unavailable to you, you can still conduct their interviews the old-fashioned way, by taking notes and writing your family member's responses immediately afterward. You might also want to experiment with conducting interviews by email, with instant-messaging software, or via webcam.

Oral History Interview Checklist

Plan to tape record your interview. Practice operating the tape recorder before you hold the interview. Bring extra tape and extra batteries. When you schedule the interview, ask your family member to bring along photos, news clippings, and any other items that might help them tell you about your topic. Such "pieces of the past" can stir vivid memories and provide a tangible link to distant times. Print out your list of questions in a type size and format that is easy to read. Bring a pad of paper and a pen so you can make notes during the interview. When you set up your equipment, label the tape with the date, the full name of the family member you are interviewing, and the topic you plan to explore. When you turn on the tape recorder, create an aural label by saying, "This is (your name) and I am interviewing (your family member's name) on (the date) at (where the interview is taking place). We are going to talk about (your topic)." To get things started, you might ask you family member to talk about where he or she was born and raised, or you can simply ask your first question. Take your time during the interview. Let your family member take as long as he or she wants to give an answer. Don't feel you have to rush through your questions, and be careful not to interrupt. Sometimes just sitting in silence for a second or two can prompt a whole new set of recollections. Resist the impulse to challenge the accuracy of your family member's memory. Telling someone they have the facts wrong usually makes them reluctant to keep talking. It can also turn a good interview into a pointless argument. When you have asked all your questions, always ask one more: "Is there anything I haven't asked about that you think I should know?" Before you turn off the tape, remember to thank your family member for helping you with your oral history project. After your interview, you might send a copy of the tape to your family member along with a thank you note. Step 5: How Stories Become History

V.

Listen to your interviews and produce a summary using your list of questions as a preliminary outline. Transcribe key parts of the interview as you listen for stories and statements that are especially revealing, or that bring a moment in the past back to life. Listen to your interview a second time to gain a more objective viewpoint on your family member's recollections and your own role in shaping the interview. Share evidence, from your interviews, of the impact events can have on individual lives. Describe the experience of family members who were directly involved in events like the Civil Rights Movement or the Women's Movement. Describe how events altered a family member's life, sending an uncle on to graduate school, for example, during the draft for the Vietnam War, or prompting a grandmother to become vigilant about recycling in response to the Environmental Movement. Events can also have an emotional impact on individuals that may be revealed when family members compare what they thought at the time, about Watergate, for example, and what they think about the event today. And in some lives, events can mark a turning-point, standing as

the moment when an individual's personal history became swept up in the historical process and he or she made a choice, for example, to escape a volatile political situation in Latin America or to become an enthusiastic evangelist for personal computers. Explore how individual perspectives mediate our perceptions of the past. Compare a family member's recollection of an event with the accounts you read while conducting their background research, and compare how individuals from different families remember the same event, such as the first moon landing or the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Through such comparisons, investigate how an individual's level of engagement may color his or her recollection of specific events, how an aunt who led a psychedelic life during the Sixties, for example, may remember those times much differently than a grandparent who only observed the hippie movement. Investigate also how subsequent events and nostalgia can color memories, leading a cousin, for example, to have a more positive impression of early television shows than most viewers had at the time. Provide evidence from your interviews of the way oral history can bring us closer to the past, give us a real feeling for the climate of the times, and evidence of the way it can filter our view of the past, turning grays into black and white, assigning minor factors a major importance, under the influence of a lifetime's experience. Recognize that a historian must balance information gathered through any single oral history interview with information gathered through background research, and information provided in other interviews on the same topic, in order to construct a valid account of the past. Combine your background research and your interviews to construct your own historical narratives or reports. Create a narrative to tell your family member's story in his or her own words, using your background research to fill in details and provide historical context. If you choose to quote your interviewee, quote accurately and indicate which parts of the narrative are direct or indirect quotes. VI. Oral Presentations

Share your oral narrative in a class presentation.