Customer Reviews

Record and Remember: Tracing Your Roots Through Oral History (New Edition)

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This short book can be read thru in just a day or so - but contains many useful bits of advice on such things as questioning techniques and what to do not do during interviews. Also provides a boiler plate legal form for interviewee to sign. I have to agree with other reviews that some of the material is definitely dated. That is to be expected from a book that had first printing in 1978. Look past such dated material and you will still find some classic good advice.

I skimmed this book and it was mainly useful for its inspirational value. There are lots of examples that make you want to interview all the people you know. But the book was originally written over twenty years ago, and although it's been updated in the 90's, it still suggests things like using a word processor to transcribe the tapes. As opposed to what, a typewriter? And it would be nice to cover recent technology, such as converting tapes to low-quality MP3s, maybe recording directly to MP3s, or using programs that slow down sound samples without changing the pitch, to make transcription easier. Overall this book didn't tell me much that wasn't obvious, but it will still be useful to give me a kick in the butt and get started.

The book seems to have been written as a response to the cultural cringe in America. Its target audience is the amateur family historian who wants to discover their heritage but includes sections for institutional use as well. It is written in a laid back friendly narrative style that is quite informative and easily digestible.

Many useful tips are given in regards to interviewing family members. After covering issues relating specifically to family history collection, broader aspects of oral history are covered. Subsequent chapters cover background research, questioning styles, developing interview outlines, recording equipment, conducting the interview, and what to do with the material after the interview.

Oral history is presented in easy bite size chunks that inspire the reader to believe they can be successful in their own project. Beth Robinson's Oral History Handbook is similar and seems to differ only in regards to depth of information, writing style and use of examples. Record and Remember seems an ideal introduction to the art of oral history within families.