Introduction: The Evolution of Oral History

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald A. Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Samuel Johnson ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
New Yorker ◽  
Greenwich Village ◽  
Standard Procedures ◽  
Digital Recorder ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insight Into

Oral history is as old as the first recorded history and as new as the latest digital recorder. Long before the practice acquired a name and standard procedures, historians conducted interviews to gain insight into great events, beginning at least as early as Thucydides, who used oral history for his account of the Peloponnesian wars. In the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson commented that “all history was at first oral,” but the term “oral history” was first used in reference to troubadours and oral traditions. However, the study of oral history was taken up seriously only during the twentieth century. Oral history did not attach itself to interviewing until an article appeared in the New Yorker in 1942 about Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village bohemian who claimed to be compiling “An Oral History of Our Time”. This article further discusses the importance of oral history projects and oral historians at the same time.

scholarly journals The Materiality of English Suicide Letters, c. 1700 – c. 1850

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Ella Sbaraini
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Emotional Distress ◽  
History Of Emotions ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Press ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Scholars have explored eighteenth-century suicide letters from a literary perspective, examining issues of performativity and reception. However, it is fruitful to see these letters as material as well as textual objects, which were utterly embedded in people's social lives. Using thirty manuscript letters, in conjunction with other sources, this article explores the contexts in which suicide letters were written and left for others. It looks at how authors used space and other materials to convey meaning, and argues that these letters were epistolary documents usually meant for specific, known persons, rather than the press. Generally written by members of the ‘lower orders’, these letters also provide insight into the emotional writing practices of the poor, and their experiences of emotional distress. Overall, this article proposes that these neglected documents should be used to investigate the emotional and material contexts for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century suicide. It also argues that, at a time when the history of emotions has reached considerable prominence, historians must be more attentive to the experiences of the suicidal.

Монгол домог дахь Мин улсын хаадын өгүүлэмж (= Устные предания монголов о правителях династии Мин)

2020 ◽  
pp. 139-152
Author(s):  
Bata Darzhagiin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Ming Dynasty ◽  
Tibetan Buddhism ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
History Of ◽  
Common Man ◽  
The Ming Dynasty

In the oral traditions of Mongols there are a lot of legends and stories not only about Genghis Khan and the period of Mongolian Yuan dynasty, but also about the first emperor of the succeeding Ming dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang (1368–1398). These stories, first of all, tell that Zhu Yuanzhang was not of the noble origin, he was the son of a common man and became the king by good fortune. Secondly, they state that the Ming dynasty emperors were Mongols by their origin. Thirdly, all these stories and legends in their form and content are typical for Mongolian folklore. The goal of this article is to introduce the plot and themes of the Mongolian historic legends and stories about the Ming dynasty emperors. Most of the texts of legends and stories were recorded by the author from Agvanchoidor (they were included into the book “The Oral History of Mongolian-Tibetan Buddhism”) and also from other informants during expeditions.

scholarly journals The disciplined sea: a history of maritime security and zonation

2019 ◽  
Vol 95 (5) ◽  
pp. 1055-1073 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry J. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Maritime Security ◽  
Functional Zones ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Architecture ◽  
Territorial Claims ◽  
Under Construction ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract This article details the evolution of maritime security from the perspective of its impact on the historical architecture of sea space. It argues that, as the fundamental unit of governance, zoning provides keen insight into the mechanics of maritime security. The article observes that Britain's Hovering Acts in the late eighteenth century represent the earliest example of modern zonation at sea and that they exhibit a shift from early modern territorial claims based on imperium and dominium. The article explores the way these hovering zones shaped the rationale underlying contemporary maritime security. It finds that maritime security has effectively relegated national security to a minor spatial belt of state power, while elevating non-traditional understandings of security to the level of global existential threat. The future of maritime security is under construction. Increasingly segmented by interconnecting, overlapping, multi-functional zones that seek to regulate all free movement and usage of the sea, security developments are reorganizing the maritime sphere. Nonetheless, the article argues, despite the novelty of this development, a historical military logic persists in new formations of security-oriented practices of maritime governance.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Cameron D. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Spanish Empire ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Interesting Insight ◽  
Reform Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Bourbon Reform ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Philosophical Structure ◽  
The Way

Chapter opens looking at the place of missions within political and philosophical structure of the Spanish empire. As Spain attempted to reform its empire in the eighteenth century in response to enlightenment concepts, it changed the way it conducted its frontier missions system. The history of the missionaries of Ocopa provided an interesting insight into these changes. They were generally seen as in line with enlightenment concepts, yet also a threat to the growing enlightenment inspired concept of royal absolutism. This study, therefore, fits within larger body of works on the Bourbon Reform period of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It argues that changes to the Spanish borderlands were a result of interactions between political actors throughout the empire.

The Swaziland Oral History Project

1987 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 383-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.A. Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Political Position ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
National Archives ◽  
History Of ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Selection Of

In 1985 an oral history project was established in Swaziland, based in the National Archives at Lobamba. The Oral History Project set itself three tasks; the establishment of an oral archive on Swazi history; the publication of a selection of transcripts form the oral archive concerning the precolonial history of Swaziland; the popularization of precolonial history.The precolonial history of Swaziland is the history of a largely non–literate people. The colonial period is well–documented, but mostly from the perspective of the colonial administration. Oral traditions are thus a primary source for both the precolonial and the later history of Swaziland. The Project is concerned to preserve oral testimonies about all periods of Swazi history, including the immediate past. Special attention however, has been paid to the collection and preservation of the oral record pertaining to the precolonial history of Swaziland, a period for which documentary sources are largely absent.There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the relative stability of the Swazi kingdom and its high degree of centralization imparted to early Swazi traditions a unique chronological depth. Secondly, the varied circumstances of incorporation of its many component chiefdoms have endowed Swaziland with an exceptionally rich corpus of local and regional traditons. This diversity facilitates the development of a picture of precolonial life that moves beyond the elitist versions of history which have long dominated both Swazi history and precolonial history elsewhere in southern Africa. Not only are the surviving Swazi oral traditions about the precolonial past unusually rich, but Swaziland occupied a pivotal political position in nineteenth–century southeast Africa. Its traditions illuminate the processes and forces that shaped the history of the entire region

Ngundeng and the “Turuk:” Two Narratives Compared

1982 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 119-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas H. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Southern Sudan ◽  
Source Evaluation ◽  
Creative Tension ◽  
History Of ◽  
Local Materials

The historiography of the southern Sudan offers few examples of the critical assessment of sources. Surprisingly, the only conscious attempts at source evaluation have been made by anthropologists or ethnographers. Most historians and political scientists have been preoccupied with chronologies of administration and policy based on colonial documents and have been all too uncritical in accepting these sources for their generalizations on the history of southern Sudanese societies. Part of the reason why the historiography of the southern Sudan has lagged so far behind the rest of Africa in this respect is that, until recently, a limited number of colonial documents were the main sources available on southern Sudanese history, and these remained both unchallenged or uncorroborated by indigenous sources. Over the last ten years, however, it has become possible for scholars to collect and examine a wider variety of local materials in the southern Sudan itself, and the comparison of these materials with the older, better-known, sources can help to produce that creative tension so necessary for any critical advance to be made.There is an urgent need for an evaluation of oral history in the southern Sudan. Oral traditions have been collected for over eighty years, but most of the recorded forms, those found in government files and reports, are composite summaries and interpretations by their collectors--government officials--rather than systematic comparisons of different accounts. In this form it is often difficult to separate the assumptions of the colonial officials from the claims of their informants, a task made particularly difficult by the fact that rarely does the record specify the source of an account or the context in which it was collected. Comparisons of modern accounts, when the source and context of the narrative are known, with these older, vaguer records can reveal something about both the traditional history of southern Sudanese societies and the assumption of colonial administrators.

scholarly journals Michael Vinson. Bluffing Texas Style: The Arsons, Forgeries, and High-Stakes Poker Capers of Rare Book Dealer Johnny Jenkins.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Brian Shetler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Rare Book ◽  
New Yorker ◽  
Short Text ◽  
History Of ◽  
Life Career ◽  
Insight Into

The story of Johnny Jenkins, rare book dealer, forger, gambler, and misterioso, has haunted me since my days in library school nearly a decade ago. I first encountered Jenkins through his publication Rare Books and Manuscript Thefts: A Security System for Librarians, Booksellers, and Collectors, which was printed in 1982 while Jenkins served as president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA). I was doing research related to the history of book theft in the United States and found Jenkins’s short text (only 27 pages) to be a helpful insight into how the ABAA viewed book theft and security. Pursuing Jenkins a bit further, I quickly came upon Calvin Trillin’s fascinating 1989 New Yorker article that chronicled Jenkins’s demise. The details of Jenkins’s secret life of forgeries, gambling, and arson were fascinating; the details of his death (shot in the back of the head, no weapon found, ruled a suicide?) were macabre and confounding. A few years later, while on break at a conference in Austin, TX, I walked into a used bookstore and found a copy of Jenkins’s Audubon and Other Capers (1976), which told the tale of his exploits in helping the FBI track down book thieves in the early 1970s. The completely contradictory life that Jenkins led, coupled with his untimely and odd death, stuck in my brain in the form of unanswered questions, unclear details, and an unresolved murder or suicide. While it was not up to me to put the pieces together and offer a clear picture of Johnny Jenkins’s life, career, and death, it had to be done by someone. That someone, it turns out, was another rare book dealer specializing in Texas and the West, Michael Vinson.

The King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-46
Author(s):  
Fahd Al-Semmari
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia ◽  
Information Center ◽  
History Of ◽  
Private Donations ◽  
Source Materials ◽  
Center Research

The King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives (KAFRA) (Arabic title: Darat al-Malik Abdulaziz) was established in 1972 with the aim of preserving the history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, along with its geography, literature, thought, and architecture. The Foundation is an independent academic establishment governed by a board of directors, chaired by HRH Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. Its funds are based on project returns, investment activities, government funds, and private donations. Its major sections are: Saudi History Archives, Oral History Center, Information Center, Research Department, Female Center, Ad-darah Journal, the Library, King Abdulaziz Memorial Exhibition Hall, Muraba Palace, and the Royal Family History Center.During its twenty-nine years of existence, the King Abdulaziz Foundation has collected and preserved huge quantities of historical source materials: documents, manuscripts, books, magazines, photographs, sketches, paintings, films, and oral traditions. The Foundation is keen to collect, classify, and preserve historical documents in both original and duplicate forms. It has collected, as well as copied from, various archives and research centers outside the Kingdom.

Studying the History of Those Who Would Rather Forget: Oral History and the Experience of Slavery

1989 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 209-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin A. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Different Types ◽  
History Of

Research on oral history tends to be concerned with two very different types of sources. I would refer to them as oral traditions and oral data. Oral traditions are formally preserved, not always as narratives, but in some fixed form. They can, for example, be passed on as songs, as drum names, or as proverbs. They are part of the collective memory of the group and get passed on from generation to generation. They serve a legitimating function and must of necessity be analyzed in terms of who and what they legitimate. There is also a large body of data at any time which individuals hold in memory, data about individual experience, data that consist essentially of things that people have seen and experienced. It is not preserved in any formal way because it is not deliberately structured for legitimation or communication. Popular writers in western countries have tapped this rather rich treasure trove in recent years to write about the Depression, two World Wars, and the Spanish Civil War among other things. Oral tradition is limited in what it passes on, and once the transition from generation to generation is made, the amount of data is forever circumscribed.Oral data are largely concerned with people describing things they experienced. They are valid primarily during the lifetime of those being interrogated. They are absolutely essential for the reconstruction of the history of peoples without history, those low down in any social order who have little to legitimate.

scholarly journals The Famous Dictionary of the Eighteenth Century

1930 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 16-18
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
Samuel Johnson ◽  
Title Page ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
History Of

The volumes are ponderous. The title-page in sonorous and dignified language informs one that this is “A Dictionary of the English Language in which the WORDS are deduced from their ORIGINALS, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers, to which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar. By Samuel Johnson, A.M. In Two Volumes.” The page is then topped off in good Johnsonian style with a nine-line Latin quotation from Horace.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document