Oral History and the Local Historian - S. Caunce

In this text, Dr Cauce draws upon his experiences as a researcher, writer, museums officer and university teacher to illustrate the potential of the approach and to offer practical advice to the beginner. This text aims to encourage the reader by admitting the author's own early mistakes, and to involve more people in oral history.;Oral history is based on the direct collection of human experience. These memories are then used like any other historical source to recover a picture of the past. Oral history is special, however, not just because it involves working directly with people, but because it also opens up areas of human experience that conventional methods do not touch. It is particularly suited to local history because of the portraits of people and places it can create.;This introduction to the subject shows how oral testimony can be used to produce history of the highest quality, using local experience as case studies to illuminate national and international themes.;The book does not centre around any geographical area. It is not just a manual. For those who do not intend to go out and record, it gives an account of how far the subject has developed. It uses as a case study, the author's own experience of investigating the vanishing world of farming with horses, as it was in East Yorkshire at the turn of the 20th century.;The book is aimed at amateur local historians, professional local historians, adult education classes in local history, local history societies, teachers and community workers as well as undergraduate and sixth form students.